


A Prince and His Merlin

by Ray_1644



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Awesome Gwaine, BAMF Merlin, BAMF Morgana, F/M, Kind of AU, M/M, Pining Arthur, Pining Merlin, Quests, Slash, good!Morgana
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-04-03 13:12:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 49,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4102270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_1644/pseuds/Ray_1644
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur realizes that he and Merlin may be a bit closer than Prince and manservant, maybe even closer than best friends. Merlin on the other hand is stressed about teaching Morgana magic and still trying to hide his own magic from Arthur. He doesn't know how much longer he can keep it all together and under wraps.  </p><p>I kinda suck at summaries, but please give it a shot!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arthur- Dreams or Nightmares?

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes about this story before it gets started! There might be spoilers depending on how far you've seen! Sorry if anything gets ruined for you. 
> 
> First off Morgana is good. Merlin told her about her magic so she didn't feel so alone in Camelot and so she didn't take off with Morgause. 
> 
> Also, I kind of messed with timetables and all that. Gwaine, Percival, Lancelot, and Elyan are all knights of Camelot because I love all of them. 
> 
> I have seen all of the shows episodes, but like I said it's kind of AU because it doesn't follow with what the show was doing. I might bring up things that happened in the show, but I may tweak them to fit the story (like when they happened). 
> 
> Overall disclaimer: I sadly own none of the characters or basically anything you might recognize. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy! Happy reading!

Chapter one: Arthur- Dreams or Nightmares?

Arthur couldn’t help himself. Merlin had been helping him undress for bed as was the usual routine, but something was different this time. Arthur couldn't stop staring at the long expanse of Merlin’s neck leading up to those gorgeous lips. It was absolutely ridiculous. Arthur held himself back while Merlin worked his shirt off and over his head. 

After the shirt came off though and Merlin smiled that large goofy smile at him he lost all of his self-control. He pulled Merlin forward with a hand at his neck and slotted his lips onto Merlin’s plush ones. It was heaven in a kiss. There was no other way to describe it. 

Merlin froze when their lips connected but after a moment he responded in kind and began to kiss Arthur back. He thought that the moment he connected their lips had been amazing, but he hadn’t been prepared for how much better it would be when Merlin started actively participating. 

Arthur’s hand that had been on Merlin’s neck moved up to tangle in his unkempt black hair while his other gripped Merlin’s hip tightly. Feeling Merlin press his whole body into Arthur was electrifying. It made a heat tear through Arthur and settle low in his body. Without really thinking about it Arthur pushed Merlin backwards leading him toward the bed. When they finally reached it Merlin tumbled back onto the bed with Arthur following after him. 

They kissed feverishly for another few moments before Arthur felt Merlin smile into the kiss and a little extra jolt of excitement rushed through him. Merlin took Arthur by surprise at that moment and flipped their positions. He rolled them until Arthur was lying flat on his back and Merlin was successfully straddling his hips. 

Merlin pulled his lips away from Arthur’s, not without effort. Arthur valiantly reached for him to pull him back down and resume their kiss, but Merlin was stubborn. Arthur could only watch as Merlin sat himself up and looked down at the flushed face that Arthur was sporting. 

Merlin rolled his hips into Arthur’s causing Arthur to throw his head back and moan obscenely. He was already dangerously hard and close to coming. Merlin had easily reduced him to a hormone ruled teen that couldn’t hold out longer than a few minutes. Merlin continued his maddening hip rolls that created a friction that was everything that Arthur wanted but just a fraction less than he needed. He wanted skin on skin contact more than anything in that moment and he would do whatever it took to get it.

Arthur reached forward and tugged at Merlin’s shirt with one hand pushing it up his lean chest while the other had freed the knot of his neckerchief. Merlin helped Arthur out and pulled his shirt off the rest of the way and tossed it carelessly to the floor. They were both shirtless at this point and Arthur could hardly wait to see the rest of Merlin bare of clothes. Merlin moved his head back down as though to resume kissing Arthur and his thrusts sped up as he was moving. 

At this moment Arthur knew that he wasn’t going to last. As soon as Merlin’s lips touched his and the friction between their hips reached its peak Arthur would combust. The pivotal moment came, only a hairsbreadth separated their lips, their hips were moving fast and in sync with each other, and it was this moment that everything came crashing to the ground. 

Arthur lurched awake with an arch in his back and a moan of pleasure caught in his throat. He lay there at point of pleasure where he needed release so badly it was almost painful. He was so lost in the feeling that he was unable to realize just what had brought him to this point. His hands snaked down his body of their own accord and very lightly traced over the outline of his cock. He was so hard that that single motion almost made him explode. 

He continued only barely touching himself, wanting to draw out the pleasure for as long as he could. It wasn’t often that he had time to himself and was in the mood for a wank. It took him a few moments to crash into awareness of what he was doing and what exactly had brought it all on. He had just had a very lewd dream about his manservant and was now about to get off from it. 

Arthur pulled his hands away from himself with a loud hiss and sat bolt upright in his bed. “Oh, fuck!” He muttered harshly under his breath. It wouldn’t do to have a passing servant hear him through the door and call for the guards. 

He flopped back down with a groan keeping his hands firmly on the mattress. He breathed for a minute trying to calm his straining erection. There was no possible way that Arthur was going to finish himself off now. Not after remembering who he had been dreaming about. That dream had been ridiculous, but just thinking about brought back a flash of heat low in Arthur’s body. 

Merlin was a servant and a man. As the crown prince of Camelot, Arthur couldn’t exactly want him, let alone have him. Arthur had never wanted another man before, not even one of his knights, this was a completely new feeling for Arthur. Arthur let his thoughts drift to Merlin even though he knew it could be dangerous territory right now. He would make sure to hold his thoughts in check. 

Merlin is his best friend. Granted he would never admit that to him. He’s lanky, has overly large ears, and he has horrible fashion sense with his ridiculous scarves. He’s a bumbling idiot that makes more messes than he cleans up. He is insolent at the best of times and he never knows when to shut up. Even with all that though Arthur can’t help but smile at the thought of him. He’s not just all those things he’s also loyal to a fault to the kingdom and to Arthur. He’s always there when Arthur needs him, even if it’s on some dangerous quest. He tells Arthur the truth and gives him solid advice when he needs it. He cares for everyone, but he goes to crazy lengths for those he cares deeply about. He also treats Arthur like a friend rather than just the prince, which is a refreshing change of pace. 

Arthur was proud that he had been able to keep his thoughts firmly away from remembering the dream while he categorized Merlin. While he had been thinking his body had calmed down enough for his erection to start fading. Which was a miracle itself since in less than an hour Merlin should be coming to his rooms to wake him up with breakfast. Arthur debated his choices; on one hand he could get up and dress himself, but then Merlin would know that something was off when he came to attend his duties. Which would mean constantly being pestered with questions. Or he could try and go back to sleep and pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 

Both options had significant problems, but what decided it for him was one thing. The idea of having Merlin dress him, those long fingers running just out of reach over Arthur’s body was already making him hard again. The scenario was eerily similar to the dream and there was no way that Arthur would be able to keep himself from getting embarrassingly hard right in the middle of it all. 

Arthur push the blankets aside, glad to see that his hard on had almost completely faded. He made himself get out of his warm, comfortable bed and get dressed for the day. He put on his loosest pair of breeches and a long green tunic. It was good to be prepared and this way if Arthur got a badly timed erection around his ever curious manservant he would at least have a fighting chance of hiding it. 

He looked himself over in a mirror and he didn’t look too off from his usual day to day self, which was a good start. Now he just had to act the part. Arthur worked to steel himself for the soon to be inevitable entrance of Merlin. He worked hard trying to figure out how to be casual and himself while his mind was swimming with images from his dream. He would just act slightly grumpy, saying he slept badly. Merlin tended to avoid him when that was actually the case because he was known to snap at people who annoyed him, namely Merlin himself. 

All of those plans that would have worked like a charm fled his mind when Merlin entered his chambers holding Arthur’s breakfast. “Good morni- Oh!” Merlin stood there with that wide eyed look, confusion written all over his face. It took a good minute before Merlin came farther into the room and set the breakfast tray down on his table. “You’re already up and dressed, Sire! Is something wrong? Usually you won’t get up until I threaten to dump your breakfast over your head.” 

Arthur internally groaned. Merlin was giving him a small caring smile as though he really does want the honest answer and not just the cop out answer. It made it hard for Arthur to lie on the spot as he can to his father or any of his knights. He knew that he had hesitated a minute too long, but he went for his planned excuse anyway. “I’m just tired. I woke up way too early and couldn’t go back to sleep.” 

“Are you sure, Arthur? You seem kind of bothered about something…” Merlin took three steps closer to Arthur who scrambled backwards double the amount that Merlin had covered across his chambers. 

“Of course I’m sure, Merlin! I just told you what was bothering me. Why are you questioning it? You are still my manservant aren’t you or did our roles suddenly get reversed?” Arthur knew as soon as he said it that it was a mistake. He had basically screamed the words at his manservant, which always proved to piss of the younger man. 

“Of course, Sire. I would never presume to ask you if you’re okay. How insolent of me.” Merlin replied his voice completely dry and devoid of its usual humor. Arthur knew that Merlin only deadpanned his voice like that when he was truly upset about something. Which made Arthur feel like the royal prat that Merlin always accused him of being.

“I can’t deal with this today Merlin. I’m going down to the field early to practice. You clean my room, then the stables, then you can help Gaius or whatever else you do.” Arthur stalked out of his room grabbing the piece of bread on the tray that Merlin had brought him as he left. Arthur knew that looking at Merlin now would have been a huge mistake. Whenever Arthur had dismissed him in the past Merlin had always had this hurt puppy look on his face. Before now Arthur had been able to ignore it, but after his dream there was no way he wouldn’t have shown some cracks in his shakily guarded expression. 

Arthur made himself walk as fast as he could without running through the halls. Merlin wasn’t going to follow him of course. Not after Arthur had basically screamed in his face without actually looking at the guy, but he wasn’t going to take chances. Arthur wanted to get a decent distance away before slowing down. Merlin knows that Arthur cares about him more than any other servant and that he sees Merlin as his best friend even if he never told the gangly servant in so many words. 

Arthur shook the encounter off and took a large bite of the bread he held. He stopped in the middle of the long hall he was in and leaned himself against the wall. He definitely needed to pull himself together before he actually saw his knights. Most of them weren’t all that perceptive, but Gwaine, Lancelot, Percival, Elyan, and Leon would all know that something was wrong. Out of the five they would never call him out on it, at least not in public, but he knew that it was possible that one of them might. Arthur finished off his bread that was a sad excuse for a royal breakfast, pushed himself off the wall after taking a deep steadying breath and kept walking. 

Arthur was walking down the corridors basically just trying to waste time so he didn’t show up way too early to practice and create more questions that he wouldn’t be able to answer. There would already be enough questions to answer when he showed up without Merlin. It was rare that he went anywhere without Merlin. He was almost always shadowed by his manservant, which surprisingly didn’t bother him as much as it should have. The couple of times that Merlin had been gone and George was his manservant Arthur did almost anything to escape from the man. 

He saw Guinevere making her way down the corridor carrying fresh sheets, probably heading towards Morgana’s chambers. Arthur knew that Gwen was ridiculously perceptive and would no doubt ask him about what was wrong as Merlin had done. He didn’t particularly want to deal with that considering he had at one point entertained the idea of having something happen between himself and Gwen. She is rather beautiful, Arthur thought as he found a place to hide in the corridor. 

He was hiding behind one of the pillars as she walked by humming to herself. He tried to picture himself with Gwen just to see if he could after that crazy dream. He imagined kissing her and falling into his bed with her as he had so many times before. This time however when he imagined rolling over to be on top of her and looking down at her kiss swollen lips her face faded away and was replaced by the pale face of Merlin.

Merlin smiled that small genuine smile at him and then leaned up to recapture Arthur’s lips. Arthur let himself imagine it for another couple of seconds before he remembered where he was and snapped himself out of it with a gasp. Gwen was completely gone from the corridor by the time that Arthur snapped his eyes open and looked around. He had become half hard after Merlin had entered into his fantasy. This was a complete mess. 

Arthur let out a small groan. He couldn’t believe that he was having these feelings and annoyingly timed fantasies about his manservant. He looked down at himself to see if his hard on was obvious. Luckily the breeches and tunic did the job of hiding it from sight. The sigh of relief that left Arthurs mouth after that was a small one. He still had no idea what to do with these new feelings of his. He had never before thought of Merlin in such a way. At least not consciously. 

His thoughts wandered back to their interactions. Arthur realized that the two were basically inseparable. He managed to think back to a couple of times that Arthur remembered finding himself staring at the lanky man. He had never thought anything of those moments until now. These thoughts had clearly been in his subconscious for a while before it became known to his conscious self. He had to reign this in. There was no possible way that anything could happen between them even if Merlin shared his feelings. He had to marry a woman with a title and create and heir to the throne. That was his one job and clearly Merlin didn’t fit the bill. 

After that thought entered his head it killed all the desire still sitting low in his abdomen. The idea of marrying simply to have a son to take over the kingdom one day was slightly revolting to him at the moment. He hated the fact that he would never be able to pick someone he loved for himself. He would be set up for a political alliance by his father and he would be expected to just go along with it. 

The corridor was still empty, but he could hear sounds coming in from outside. He stepped out and looked through one of the windows. All of his knights were on the field already. He was now late for practice instead of early and that would cause just as many questions. Arthur bit out a curse under his breath and started rushing through the halls again. 

He made it down to the field in record time with a scowl written across his face. He was completely off today and it was getting on his nerves. He needed to pull himself together before he had to interact with Merlin again. “Come on men! Pair up and lets start practice.” 

The sword sung when he pulled it out of his scabbard. His other men managed to follow his instructions even though they all threw him wary looks. Arthur as always paired himself up with one of his best knights so that he could actually get some solid practice in. Today he gravitated towards Leon, the least outspoken of his best knights.

“You seem distracted today, sire…” Leon ventured after some time practicing. Arthur was sure that the man had been weighing the options of saying something against staying quiet. 

“I’m just tired today, Leon.” Arthur was repeating the story he told Merlin, but this time at least he didn’t sound so hesitant with it. 

“Of course, Sire.” Leon stopped talking for a moment, but obviously wanted to say something else. Arthur gave him a pointed look until he finally continued his thought. “Is there a reason that Merlin didn’t come down today…?” 

“He’s been slacking lately. He has a lot of cleaning to do today.” Arthur knew that he was fairly convincing. His expression matched the annoyance he would always portray when Merlin had gotten on his nerves and the tone of his voice was appropriately careless with the words. 

“Of course, Sire.” Leon repeated his early statement with a small smile on his face, apparently he wasn’t convincing enough. 

Arthur wondered if his knights always thought that way about himself and Merlin and then scowled at the thought. “Let’s just practice and get today over with.” Arthur threw himself back into their practice fight so that Leon didn’t have the chance to comment on anything else. 

Arthur’s day sure was off to a great start…


	2. Merlin- Magic and Madness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Morgana have a talk and do some magic.

Merlin stood in the center of Arthur’s chambers and watched as he scurried out of the room. Whatever he had done to piss off the prince he had absolutely no idea. He was actually kind of pissed as well. The way Arthur had just treated him when he had done nothing wrong, at least not that he knew of, was not okay. Merlin honestly thinks that they are friends. So when Arthur does this kind of thing it’s spectacularly shitty for Merlin. 

‘Clean my room’ Arthur had ordered him before he left. Merlin took a long look around the room at the messy bed and uneaten breakfast and then took a seat himself at Arthur’s table. There wasn’t much to actually clean in here so Merlin let himself sit and enjoy the breakfast that Arthur had barely even glanced at. 

The door flew open just as Merlin bit into a juicy, crunchy red apple. He stood up, dropped the apple back onto the tray with a clang and attempted to swallow the still solid bite of food in his mouth. Sadly, this ended in him almost choking to death on a bite of apple. He hacked and finally managed to get it down before he looked up and saw Morgana standing there with and amused look on her face. 

“Really Merlin… are you sure you’re actually this all powerful sorcerer?” She had yet to close the door and all the color drained out of Merlin’s face. 

“Morgana! You can’t just go around saying things like that! One of these days someone might take you seriously and I’ll end up being burnt at the stake.” Merlin was freaking out. He knew he had done the right thing when he had told Morgana that she did have magic, that she wasn’t crazy, and that she definitely wasn’t alone. Some moments when she talked about it so openly though, he felt like he was going a bit crazy. 

“Oh, please! Like Arthur would ever let that happen. I mean come on Merlin, the guy basically adores you.” Morgana purred as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. 

Merlin rolled his eyes and walked back to the table to sit. He had managed to flail around the room when he had been choking. “He left the room almost as soon as I came in here this morning. I very much doubt that he adores me. And I doubt even more that he would be at all happy with me after finding out I had been lying to him for so long.” 

“Wait, Merlin! Are you actually telling me that Arthur doesn’t know about you? You can’t be serious.” Morgana was looking at him with shock written all across her face. 

“Of course he doesn’t know. I would never tell him and make him lie to his father’s face every day. That wouldn’t be fair to him at all.” A sad sigh escaped Merlin’s lips after he spoke. There was so many points in their friendship that Merlin had wanted to tell Arthur everything about him. 

Morgana pursed her lips and looked at Merlin for a long moment. “You should tell him you know. I think he won’t freak out nearly as badly as you’re imagining.” 

Merlin sighed once more and picked up the apple he had dropped. He took another huge bite and chewed thoughtfully for a few moments. “I just… I can’t do that to him, Morgana. I can’t make him choose. Look, did you come here looking for Arthur? Because he already left to go down to the practice fields.” 

A perfectly executed eye roll from Morgana later and then she was sweeping forward and sitting gracefully across from him at the table. “No, you idiot. I was looking for you. I know you’ve already greatly helped me learn to control my magic so I don’t scare myself in the middle of the night anymore. Now though I really want to learn how to wield it better. I can create fire, make it bigger, make it smaller, and see the future in my dreams sometimes, but I can’t do much else at this point.” 

Merlin sat up straighter. This was actually a conversation that he knew a lot about. He had been studying up and learning everything he could ever since he came to stay with Gaius. “Okay, so you want to learn spells themselves? Or do you want to learn how to do things off instinct?” 

Her eyes flicked downward as she thought about it for a second, then she licked her lips and offered him her answer. “Well both, but what kinds of things can you do off instinct?” 

“Hmm… well mostly it involves moving things when it’s necessary. For example…” Merlin glanced around the room and then gestures toward the bed with his free left hand. He knows that his eyes flashed gold. He knows that Morgana saw it and then she turned to follow his gesture. The bed sheets neatly fluffed themselves up and then carefully laid out on the bed. The sheets straightened themselves out afterward creating a freshly made bed. 

Morgana’s eyes light up and there’s a slight smile on her lips. “Okay… so how do you do it?” 

“Well mostly it’s all about focusing. You have to picture what you want to happen, focus on it, and then just let your power flow through and out of you to do what you want. Gesturing can help you focus on the action as well. Overall though I would say practice before you try anything in public. Making a gesture would just draw attention to yourself.” Merlin stopped himself before he kept babbling. He could go on and on about magic, but Morgana was clearly digesting what he said. 

“…Can I try?” The words were small, like she was still a bit unsure of herself and her own powers. 

“Of course!” Another flash of gold and the candle holder by Arthur’s bed floated over to the center of the table between Merlin and Morgana. This time Merlin had moved the object without a gesture. Merlin had been able to do this kind of stuff since he was a baby. He wasn’t quite sure how to go about teaching Morgana how to do it, but he was more than happy to try. 

“A candle holder…” Morgana’s voice was full of questions. 

“Well, yes. You should start pretty small and hone your abilities before you decide try something bigger. You have a lot of power Morgana, but things like this, the instinct stuff, can take some practice. With a spell you just have to say the words right and let the power go. This is so much more focused and a lot of sorcerers can’t do the bigger stuff simply based off instinct. So just try and levitate it first. Okay?” Merlin thought his explanation was pretty good. This was the first time he was teaching someone though and he hoped he would be able to do this for Morgana. 

Merlin watched as she focused on the candle stick. He knew that she appreciated knowing that she wasn’t alone with her magic, that she could use it for good, that it didn’t make her evil or a freak. However, she probably didn’t know how much he appreciated not being alone either. For his whole life he knew that having magic made him different, but that it didn’t make him evil. Years he had been alone with his magic. He had never known someone so well that also had magic, someone that he could learn with and talk to. Now whenever there was a magical threat, maybe, just maybe he would have someone he could turn to. 

Lancelot knows he has magic of course, but he could never actually go to him. He was a knight. He had to be around Arthur as a knight, he couldn’t just take off with Merlin to fight magic with magic. Merlin returned his attention to Morgana. She was staring at the candle holder, but she was resolutely not letting herself gesture at it. He let her try for another moment before breaking her concentration with a comment, “You know gesturing does help focus the power. It doesn’t take away from your abilities, but it can help as a starting point.” 

Morgana lets out a small huff and then lets her hand raise up out of her lap. “I don’t want to have to rely on gestures.” 

“I know, but it can be helpful when you are first learning. It’s something that can be dropped later.” Complete understanding was laced in Merlin’s voice as he spoke to Morgana. He knew how it felt to be a little lost within magic. He actually tended to have more trouble with the spell side of magic. Sometimes the words just didn’t want to work for him. Like that time when Arthur was fighting Valiant. That was a disaster. He almost hadn’t been able to master the spell in time to show everyone including Arthur that Valiant was cheating. 

Morgana took a deep breath and then tried again. This time she gestured and the candle holder wobbled and lifted off the table and inch or so. “Oh! It worked!” After her exclamation the candle holder promptly fell back to the table because of her broken concentration. 

Merlin let out a chuckle as Morgana frowned at the candle holder. “That was good! Like I said though, it’s all about concentration. So when you got distracted so did your power. Try it once more, this time really focus. You already know you can do it so this time should be simple.” 

With one more gesture and a very focused stare Morgana lifted the candle holder off of the table about a foot high and held it there for a few moments. There was a small twitch of her lips, but she held in her elation. She then let herself gesture for the candle holder to move back down. It slowly followed her instructions. When it hit the table it wobbled but stayed upright. 

This time Morgana couldn’t contain herself. She let out a small excited noise that turned into a full on laugh. The laughter was infectious and Merlin laughed with her after a second. “Okay, Merlin. You do seem to know that you’re talking about. So what now?” 

“Do you think you can put it back?” Merlin asked her. He gestured his head toward the bedside table that he took it from. She immediately bit her lip in doubt. “I think you can. You do have a lot of power. You’ll master this stuff in no time.” 

Morgana took the challenge and focused her piercing gaze again. This time when she gestured she did so slowly. She first lifted the candle holder into the air and then set it on its way gracefully across the room. It worked its way over to Arthur’s bedside table and Morgana’s hand tracked its progress. Once it made it to the spot it had been in before Merlin had moved it, Morgana let her hand move downward without breaking her stare. The candle holder followed her lead and slowly went down to hit the spot it had so recently occupied. 

Breath rushed out of Morgana as though she had been holding it throughout the entire time she had been concentrating on the object. Merlin sent her his classic large happy smile. “That was great, Morgana! Now all you have to do is put in a bit of practice and you’ll be moving things all the time. Don’t overdo it though. I don’t want to see you strain yourself and wear yourself out by using so much power.” 

The smile she sent him after that was a small, genuine smile. “Whatever you say…” Morgana trailed off so he picked up a couple of slices of cheese and a cracker and popped them in his mouth. “So Merlin… When you said Arthur doesn’t know, does that mean that I’m the only one who knows?”

Merlin almost had another choking fit at the question, but then stopped himself from freaking out just in time. He managed to chew and swallow the food in his mouth before responding. “No, Gaius knows. I kind of saved his life on the day I got here. So he’s known since then. He knows about your magic as well. He was too worried to bring it up since you’ve had some issues with King Uther in the past.” 

This time Morgana really did let out a huff and executed a perfect eye roll. “I know that Uther is my father. Morgause came and went with her lovely news. I know why he hid it even if I don’t agree with it. I even know why he can’t claim me since I was technically born before Arthur was. He doesn’t want me to have any claim on the throne since I’m a woman and Arthur has been training for it his whole life. I really don’t agree with that one either. I feel like I would be an excellent Queen. Though, I don’t actually want the job. It did help knowing I wasn’t so completely alone here in Camelot or I bet I would have completely ignored the rational side of things.” 

This time Merlin sent her a softer smile. “Don’t say that, Morgana. You’re brilliant. I doubt you would have been so blinded that you wouldn’t have been able to see reason through your anger.” 

Morgana raised her chin up and held in a smile. “Yes, well… not that I don’t enjoy your faith in me, but we just got off topic. Is Gaius the only other person who knows?” 

Merlin started to fidget again and so of course he shoved some more of Arthur’s uneaten breakfast into his mouth to give himself some extra time. “No… Lancelot might kind of know.” 

“Kind of? Merlin… how could he kind of know?” Morgana had this smile on her face that was starting to scare Merlin. He had only seen her smile like that when she was hatching a plan that would almost always piss off Arthur. 

“Remember that Griffin that was killed by Lancelot? Well I might have helped that along. It could only be killed by magic so I had to enchant the lance that he was trying to kill it with. And sadly he’s not as dense as Arthur usually is and noticed what I did and called me out on it. We don’t really bring it up though. Since he’s usually around Arthur or one of the other knights.” Merlin started fiddling with his shirt sleeve. It was so strange to talk about this stuff openly and in Arthur’s chambers. 

“You know Merlin it is kind of a miracle that Arthur hasn’t figured it out yet. It’s not like you are a master at being subtle. Also you kind of suck at lying. I always knew you were hiding something, I just kind of figured it had more to do with you liking Arthur than you being some big name sorcerer.” After Morgana fished talking and the words registered in Merlin’s mind his eyes flew wide, but he tried to cover it up. 

“Well of course I like the guy. I am kind of destined to protect him. That would be a rather difficult job if we completely hated each other.” Merlin thought he had covered well, but clearly Morgana wasn’t buying it. 

Morgana let out a low chuckle before she answered him. “You know that wasn’t what I meant Merlin. Well I really must be going. Gwen is probably waiting for me in my chambers right now, but I’ll see you tonight, correct? I mean you will be serving Arthur at that pointless feast Uther has staged right? It is rather annoying that he hosts a feast right after we beat a food shortage, but I had no say in it.” 

“Of course I will. The way today is going though Arthur will probably try and get me to wear that ridiculous hat again.” Merlin completely stayed away from making a comment on the first part she was talking about. He knew that he would have just dug himself into a deeper hole. Morgana was a great person, but she was stubborn and maybe just a bit scary. 

She had stood up gracefully from the chair she had been perched on and leaned over the table to snag a piece of cheese off the tray that still sat in front of Merlin. “Thank you for the lesson by the way. We really need to do this more often Merlin. Also, you must introduce me to this destiny talking dragon of yours.” She bit into the piece of cheese and walked out of the room laughing. 

Merlin watched her go for a moment until the door swung shut behind her. All the tension he had coiled in his body finally left him and he could relax back into the chair. He hadn’t realized that he had been so tense since Morgana had mentioned that he liked Arthur. A groan of annoyance escaped him as he thought back on it. He tended to shake off those kinds of thoughts. That was the best way he handled the Arthur situation since he had realized that he liked the prince more than he should. Arthur was destined for the throne and to marry a wonderful woman. 

As he was a man and very much below Arthur’s station there was really no shot for him, so he tried to ignore the situation completely. A flash of gold later and anything in Arthur’s chambers that needed to be cleaned started to do so. He finished off the breakfast with his legs propped up on the table while his magic did its work. His day was off to one hell of an interesting start.


	3. Feast of Fools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The feast happens and all things build up to drama!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter switches between a couple points of view. I hope it isn't too confusing! If so please let me know and I'll work to fix it. Thanks all readers! And as always enjoy!

Merlin had done as Arthur had ordered him to after he had finished off the breakfast. He had let his magic clean out Arthur’s room, but when he went down to the stables he actually had to do the work himself. There was no chance of him being able to pull off cleaning out the very public horse stalls with magic without drawing very unwanted attention to himself. 

Of course after Merlin had cleaned out the stables he had to return to Gaius’s rooms in order to clean himself off and change. He then helped out Gaius by running some medicines across the castle to different people. Gaius as always was in need of more ingredients for the medicines that he will be making in the future so of course he sent Merlin off to collect different plants and herbs. That was the boring way that Merlin had spent the rest of his day, but at least he hadn’t been yelled at again. 

Of course after the reminder from Morgana he knew that he had to get Arthur ready for the feast tonight. After the way Arthur had freaked out on him this morning though he figured that Arthur didn’t exactly remember the feast. So Merlin made his way to Arthur’s chambers hesitantly. He wasn’t all that excited to be on the receiving end of Arthur’s anger, again. 

When Merlin got to Arthur’s chambers he knocked on the door just in case Arthur had made it back before him. There was no answer so Merlin went ahead and walked into the room. He went to Arthur’s wardrobe and took out a fancy embroidered red shirt for him and a pair of black breeches. He then went ahead and set up a bath for Arthur. Without really thinking about it he let his magic loose to fill the tub with some hot water. If Arthur came back in a foul mood maybe having a bath ready and waiting for him would keep his anger off of Merlin. 

Merlin took the time to take one last look around the room and at himself. The room was clean and so was he. Arthur shouldn’t have anything to complain about, but Merlin backed himself off to the side of the room and refused to touch anything until Arthur got there and he could do his job of getting Arthur dressed and ready for the feast. 

It didn’t take long for Arthur to return. When he entered his room it was like he just started melting. All of his practice gear slid down to the floor, where Merlin would have to pick it up from later. Merlin watched as Arthur moved through the room. After a moment of being completely ignored Merlin figured that Arthur hadn’t noticed him standing there. When Arthur moved to take off his sweat stained shirt Merlin cleared his throat to make his presence known. 

Arthur quickly whirled around at the noise. He would of course deny it later, but he let out a clearly girlish squeak at being startled. When Arthur noticed that it was his manservant that had made the noise he didn’t completely get himself together as quickly as he should have. Without really thinking about his actions Arthur let himself relax knowing that it was just Merlin in his chambers and yet at the same time his whole body thrummed with the left over energy of the day and he couldn’t stop himself from swallowing hard. 

After a slight shake to his head to clear it Arthur focused back on the situation at hand. “Bloody hell, Merlin! Warn a guy when you decide to skulk in dark corners of their rooms.” 

Merlin had to force back the smile and chuckle that had been about to break free when Arthur had let out his surprised noise. “Sorry, Sire. I’m just here to get you ready for the feast tonight.” 

“Shit! I completely forgot about that damn feast…” Arthur walked over to his table and slumped into the chair. He seemed exhausted, as though the feast was the absolute last thing he wanted to be doing tonight. 

“Well I have a hot bath ready for you and your clothes laid out already. So it won’t be too much extra effort to get ready for the feast. Plus, since there aren’t any special guests you have to stay to entertain, you may be able to duck out early.” Merlin spoke softly enough that if Arthur wanted to ignore him he easily could have. 

Arthur allowed the smallest of smiles to cross his face. “Thanks Merlin. Hopefully you’re right and I can get out early.” 

Arthur had exhausted himself while practicing with the knights. He even went further to make sure that he was distracted the entire day and took out his horses for some rigorous training. Then he had made his way back to the fields while his knights had been relaxing he went to work hacking at the practice dummies. At the point that he entered his rooms he was so tired that Merlin being there hadn’t caused as strong of a reaction in him as he had been expecting. 

This was a plus for Arthur. He figured that it must have just been pent up energy from days of rest and relaxation that had caused the dream from the night before. He didn’t need to be so rude and standoffish to his manservant if that was the case. There was no big deal with having strange dreams when his body was adjusting to having so much extra energy and no real outlet for it all. 

“Alright Merlin. Let’s get me ready for this pointless feast. And though I will deny ever saying any of this. I am sorry for being such a prat this morning.” The prince was much more at ease with his internal decision. It was all due to his body not having a proper outlet for a few days. That was all and there was nothing to worry about. He had never and will never have feelings for his manservant. At least not in any romantic sense, Arthur was completely straight, as he has always been. 

Merlin finally let himself relax. He had actually been worried that Arthur was pissed off at him for something he had unknowingly done. This was getting back to the way they usually acted with each other and Merlin was much more comfortable with that arrangement. He let lose an eye roll automatically, it was second nature for Merlin to roll his eyes around Arthur these days. Unless they were around Uther or other visiting royals they tended to act like equals and almost everyone in the castle knew that Merlin was the only one who could really get away with talking to the prince like that when he was so clearly below Arthur’s station. The knights all found it hilarious and were friends with Merlin just as Arthur is. On the other hand the rest of the servants tended to get tense about it all. Maybe they were jealous that they didn’t have that kind of rapport with their charges, all except Gwen in any case. Morgana and Gwen got along almost as famously as Merlin and Arthur. 

Merlin motioned for Arthur to stand up from his slouch in the chair he had claimed. Once he stood up Arthur relaxed his shoulders and allowed Merlin to start undressing him. Arthur was handling it all perfectly fine until Merlin moved around him and started to undo the laces at his neck. Merlin’s long fingers were used to the motion, but they ever so slightly brushed across Arthur’s collar bone and he had to force himself not to react in the most obvious way possible. 

That small light touch brought back everything that Arthur had thought he had gotten rid of from his busy day. This was a motion that Merlin had made a million times before. Arthur had never reacted like this to someone undressing him, it was second nature for him to have people do these things for him. It shouldn’t have cause every single muscle in his body to tighten. It shouldn’t have made his knees go a bit weak. It shouldn’t have made him lose his breath and want to draw in the biggest breath he had ever taken at the same moment. 

Merlin, as much as Arthur complained to the contrary, was actually observant enough to notice when Arthur went completely still. This of course made Merlin still as well. After the screaming and freak out from that morning Merlin was hesitant to set the man off again. Especially so soon after he had actually gotten an apology from him. After a moment Merlin was able to muster up enough of his guts and spoke. “Are you alright, Arthur?” 

The start of this conversation had a similar feel to the one from that morning, but Merlin was hoping for a better outcome this time around. At least now he knows that he didn’t actually do something wrong. He was literally only doing what Arthur had asked of him as was in his job description. 

The tension had yet to drain back out of Arthur at the first touch of Merlin’s hands. Luckily for him Merlin stilled his motions as well and so there wasn’t any more of those tiny, torturous, flickering touches over his skin. This was so close to a flashback from that stupid dream he apparently couldn’t get away from. It was ridiculous that something that was such an everyday thing for him could set him off so easily. Arthur forced himself to breathe even though that was almost the last thing he wanted to do at this point. He had been able to rationalize it all before, but now, in the moment he was going to go insane. This was exactly the situation that he had been trying to avoid that morning. 

Arthur was supposed to be the bravest man in Camelot. He was not supposed to shy away from his gangly manservant. Even if his life was going all upside down and completely wrong at the moment he could handle this. He had faced all kinds of terrible beasts and come out alive to tell the tales. Having had a distinctly sexual dream about his manservant was not going to be his undoing. “I’m fine Merlin. Just sore from working out today. I can handle the rest of my clothes and bathing myself. Just make sure that my clothes for the feast are ready. I’d hate for my father to go on another lecture about my fashion choices.” 

Arthur was more than certain that he had handled that conversation more elegantly than he had the one in that morning. It still wasn’t what he would have called a normal response, but it wasn’t bad and didn’t come across as completely rude. He managed to move himself away from Merlin’s outstretched hands and towards his bath waiting in the corner behind the changing screen. His back was to Merlin now and he was much more comfortable not facing the guy. It took a lot of extra effort to make sure that he didn’t give in to his curiosity and turn around to see what Merlin was doing. He managed to rid himself of his own shirt and tossing it over the screen before disappearing behind it. 

Merlin himself stood there and watched Arthur’s progress. He had always been able to handle the duties of dressing and undressing Arthur even knowing that he was attracted to the guy. His ability to compartmentalize his duties and his attraction had been tested at first, but that was helped by Arthur acting like the royal prat and by the time they had actually became friends Merlin was able to completely separate the two things. As Merlin grew up in Ealdor he had known he was different because of his magic, but then he also noticed that while Will was always looking at the girls growing up around them Merlin had more of a focus on the boys. 

With as much power as he always had inside of him because of his natural ability in magic he didn’t want to have to constantly be worried about being careful with a woman’s soft curves. It had only increased since he had come to Camelot and found out so much more about his magical abilities and how much real power he could actually wield. He could call down lightning, control dragons, and he was apparently the center of a huge destiny and adored by the druid people. It just gave him all that much more knowledge into his own power and made him even less likely to want to be constantly fighting his own strength. He could of course appreciate female beauty. He wasn’t blind. Morgana and Gwen alone were some of the most gorgeous women he had ever seen. He had even had a few moments with Freya, thinking that she was a being of magic as well and so he wouldn’t have to be so careful around her. 

After the disastrous ending to that situation though Merlin had basically sworn off all of his chances with women. And of course then his attraction for Arthur just intensified. He had been attracted to him from the start. Arthur was basically the epitome of male perfection. He would never say that to him, but it was true. Even when Merlin was convinced that he hated Arthur he still wanted to sleep with him. Today was seriously testing his ability to compartmentalize all of these things. He could separate his duties and his attraction because he was usually in charge of what he did with those situations. However, this time he stood there frozen watching Arthur strip off his shirt and walk towards his bath it was completely out of his control. Arthur’s back muscles bunched and stretched as he carelessly took off the shirt and swung it over the screen. This was seriously testing his strictly imposed self-control. He finally allowed his body to unfreeze from its tense pose when Arthur disappeared behind the screen and Merlin heard the small splash of water. Merlin fussed with the clothes he had laid out for Arthur and picked up the practice gear while he waited on the man to bathe himself. 

Arthur got into the steaming water and immediately wished that for once Merlin would have allowed his bath water to be cold. It would have been nice to be able to submerge himself in some chilly water and wash away all the warm and tingling thoughts running through his head. He sat completely motionless in the water for a few moments before he made himself go all the way under the water and hold his breath until he was almost out of air. He made sure to completely avoid any and all possible erotic touches on himself. When he washed himself with the soap he was a bit rough with it, but he needed to get all thoughts of caresses out of his head. 

By the time he finally managed to pull himself out of the tub he had managed to regain control of his own body. He dried himself off, but he really didn’t feel like having to deal with having the same kind of reaction a second time if Merlin were to dress him. “Merlin, hand me my breeches for the feast.” 

Merlin startled on the other side of the screen. He had been waiting for Arthur to step out so that he could dress him. This was definitely out of the ordinary, but Merlin really shouldn’t be complaining when he was already having some personal control issues. He grabbed the breeches off of the bed and took the shirt with him as well. He fed the fabric over the screen not really daring to move around it and actually hand them to Arthur. After Arthur grabbed the breeches and a couple moments had passed Merlin slid the shirt over the screen to him as well without having to be asked. 

It was another couple of moments before Arthur moved out from behind the screen fully dressed with his hair a complete mess. He had managed to dry it enough that it wasn’t dripping water all over his feast clothes, but it was still sticking up all over the place. Merlin only hesitated for a second before he took the comb from Arthur’s table and made to fix his hair. It was his job to take care of the prince. He was doing his job exactly as he had every other day that he had done his job. There was no reason for him to start hesitating now. 

Arthur let Merlin do his job and fix his hair. He couldn’t allow his internal freak out to change everything in his life. If he start to let it change how he acted around his manservant it would cause everyone in the castle to start asking questions. Then George would step in and try to take over Merlin’s job again and Arthur just can honestly not stand that guy. He would rather be constantly freaking out than deal with George every day. 

Arthur managed to put on his own boots after his hair had been brushed into some semblance of normal and since it was an informal feast that was all it took for him to be ready. He didn’t have to wear any special crown or accoutrements with no one new in Camelot to impress. Everyone would still be dressed fancy, but there was no reason to pull out the fancy swords and jewels when there was no one coming they needed to prove their wealth for. 

They both exited Arthur’s chambers together and while it was still tense they were both handling it all fine. Arthur of course made his way to the main doors of the hall while Merlin broke off and went through to the kitchen. He would be entering from the servants doors off to the side and back of the hall. He wasn’t actually one of the kitchen staff so he wouldn’t be in charge of serving Arthur his food, but he would have to make sure that Arthur’s goblet was always full with something. 

Merlin went through the kitchen and subtly snuck a roll from one of the many trays. It was easy to get away with things like that when the kitchen was so full. Of course there was someone who noticed his little bit of theft. Gwen was standing in the middle of the room a small indulgent smile on her face. Merlin, being him, had to take a bite out of the roll and then smile cheekily at her. He made his way over after that display and they were both laughing quietly. 

Everyone else was a blur of rushing motion through the kitchen. They wanted to get noticed, but only in a good way so of course they wanted everything to be perfect for every feast that Uther decided needed to be thrown. Gwen was in a classic dress for her. It was a pretty blue, but much plainer than anything that any of the court ladies would be wearing tonight. Gwen’s job was much the same as Merlin’s. She would make sure that Morgana had everything she needed just as Merlin would look after Arthur.  
“How was your day Merlin?” Gwen greeted him with her cheery smile as always. 

“It was an interesting one. Arthur sent me off to help Gaius all day after I cleaned his room. So it was pretty uneventful. I didn’t even have to be a target for him at practice. It was a new one for me. How about you Gwen?” Merlin liked to keep everything light hearted with Gwen. It was basically devastating every time that she frowned. She was such a naturally happy person that when she was upset everyone else was upset. 

She let out a small laugh, “That is a new one for you. How did that go over at practice I wonder?” 

“Oh, I’m sure they were all a mess out there without me. You know all those knights have no idea which end is the pointy part of the sword without me around to tell them.” This time Merlin let out a self-indulgent laugh at his own small joke. Luckily, Gwen seemed to enjoy his brand of humor and let out a snort that just set Merlin off more. 

“Merlin there’s just something about you. I swear you are the weirdest guy I’ve ever met.” Gwen was so sincere when she said things like that. It didn’t have the slight lace of an insult that Arthur would have put into his voice. And it didn’t carry the distinct knowing feeling that Morgana now used in her voice when she spoke to Merlin. 

“Ah, but I keep things interesting. What would you do without me, Gwen?” The rest of the roll disappeared into his mouth right after he finished speaking. 

Gwen’s pretty brown eyes rolled at his antics. He really didn’t mind. He loved being able to make the girl laugh. She was the first person in Camelot who was truly nice to him when he was a complete stranger to them. “Well, I’m sure I would have been in a lot less crazy situations at this point. Though honestly Merlin I couldn’t picture Camelot without you anymore.” 

Of course her last comment made Merlin break into his ridiculously large, goofy, happy smile. It was too sweet of a comment not to get that kind of reaction from him. The nice happy moment was of course interrupted by the bustling cook who shooed everyone on their way into the dining hall. Gwen and Merlin both picked up jugs of the nice fancy wine that was being served tonight and headed out into the hall. They gave each other small smiles before moving to stand behind their charges that were sitting and chatting at the table. 

It was nice that Arthur and Morgana sat next to each other at simpler feasts like this. That meant that at least Gwen and Merlin were able to talk to each other. They both knew that they were somewhat on the outs of the servant’s community. They were both personal servants to important people in Camelot. That created some degree of favoritism for them that the others weren’t quite granted. They gave each other small smiles again and moved forward to fill the goblets on the table. Uther’s servant was an older man who seemed to only appear at the feasts. He tended not to speak or interact with anyone else and leave as soon as his services were complete. 

The feast was a boring affair for Merlin. He was never really allowed to move until the actual eating had ended. Luckily this time around it only took an hour and a half to have to food cleared away and some small time entertainment brought in. This meant that Merlin could move through the room and not have to stand perfectly still staring at the line on Arthur’s cup anymore. 

Arthur on the other hand was enjoying himself in a casual way. It wasn’t a stressful feast where he had to be on his best behavior and charm an alliance out of someone so he was free to sit and converse with Morgana and his knights. They talked about random topics including what tournaments and new knights would be coming into Camelot in the coming months. 

Uther as usual finished his food and stayed to watch all of twenty minutes of the entertainment. That was his usual presence at these kinds of feasts. He didn’t need to make a grand gesture so he left when he was able to. Morgana was quick to change the topic of conversation as soon as Uther had left the hall. 

She leaned over into Arthur’s space to speak. She knew he would react even more so if he thought no one else would hear her words. He wouldn’t have the added pressure of keeping up an act in his head. After her conversation that morning with Merlin she was sure that she was onto something with those two. And she was going to figure it out one way or another. 

“So Arthur… I went to your chambers this morning, but you had already left. What was with that? You left Merlin there and everything. You two are practically attached at the hip. It was more than a bit surprising to me.” Morgana let absolutely nothing leak out of her voice. She knew Arthur would get defensive if he thought she was actually trying to figure something out. 

Arthur could feel his cheeks go red, but he tried to breathe through it. “Yes, well Morgana, not everyone takes hours to get ready in the morning. Plus, Merlin needed to do stuff for Gaius today and all I had was practice so there was no point in making him tag along with me.” 

Morgana knew that Arthur was lying. She had that wonderful conversation with Merlin to base that on. So she knew there was a hell of a lot more to the story than that. “I do wonder how he has time to get all of his things done. Gaius is a task master and you are no slouch yourself in that department. You are a bit high maintenance…” 

Now Arthur spluttered. Morgana was the one person who knew exactly what buttons to push to set him off balance at least until Merlin showed up and started being completely insubordinate. “Like you are any better in that area. How long did it take you to get ready for this feast anyway?” 

“You know you can’t rush perfection Arthur.” Morgana had let the conversation trail away from dangerous territory in Arthur’s eyes and they went back to their usual back and forth bickering. It was easy for them to fall into that kind of routine. She of course had other plans in mind for the night. 

She had been able to gather for sure that morning that Merlin obviously liked Arthur. I mean the guy hid it well, but now that Morgana knew his other big secret it wasn’t as hard to spot this one. After that realization she now needed to know what was going through Arthur’s head. Which would be surprisingly easier than she thought. 

She looked across the room and noticed that Merlin was standing around talking with Gwaine. He was without a doubt the most notorious flirt that had ever been a knight of Camelot and he was also very good friends with Merlin. Merlin had been the one to meet him and convince him that fighting for Camelot was a worthy cause. People were just drawn to the skinny man, Morgana had often wondered if it had something to do with his magic after she had found out. 

Luckily it worked out that it was someone Merlin was close enough to joke with, but not someone who knows about his magic. Morgana had noticed that when Merlin tried to cover up anything magic related he blushed and babbled and tended to be an adorable fool. With her knew found knowledge and practice from that day Morgana only had to twitch her finger and the jug that was sitting on the table next to Merlin started to float just a couple of inches. Morgana’s lips twitched into the smallest of smiles that would scare the bravest knight and sat back to watch it all unfold. 

Merlin had been in the middle of a conversation with Gwaine when he felt the air next to his hand stir. He looked down and noticed the wine jug floating. He almost let out an involuntary squeak similar to the noise Arthur had made earlier, but he held it in. He knew for a fact that he wasn’t causing the jug to float. His magic was in perfect control today and there was no reason for it to be acting out. 

It didn’t take him long to figure it out. He grabbed the jug from midair and clutched it to him. Without thinking about it he threw a glare over towards Morgana. It had to be her, there was no one else here with the ability and it was the same day he had taught her how to move objects. Her answering smile and finger wave made him even more sure of it all. His sudden movement of course startled Gwaine out of his story about practice from that day. 

“Merlin…. Are you okay?” Gwaine was a good mate and his voice was laced with actual worry. 

Merlin automatically turned bright red. He was going to have to lie, again. He always turned red when he lied. It was a horrible habit and it was terrifying to think that something so small could undo so much. “Uh… I’m fine. Just you know really wanted some wine for myself after noticing your goblet full. It just always looks so good and then I can’t have any of it and all that.” 

Gwaine let out his full bark of a laugh which of course drew the gaze of most people in the room. Gwaine was not one to be quiet even in somber situations and this is a feast so he is even less inclined to keep his volume lowered. After Gwaine laughed his fill he let his eyes flicker over the room as though he was trying to be sneaky. “I’ll let you have some of mine Merlin as long as you promise not to get completely drunk. I’d hate to have to carry you back to Gaius’s.” 

Merlin’s mouth dropped open and he blushed an even deeper shade of red. “That was one time, Gwaine! And we had all just lived through a dragon attack. I think that was a pretty good reason for drinking. Also you were the one that kept handing me drinks. I blame that one solely on you.” 

Gwaine of course just laughed again with that glint in his eyes that told Merlin that he was only joking. He let his goblet linger in the air between the two of them as if to tempt Merlin into actually taking a drink. Merlin of course couldn’t back down now. So he set the jug back down and lightly snatched the goblet out of Gwaine’s fingers. He made sure to take a purposefully long drink before handing it back to the man and gracefully picking back up the jug and refilling the goblet. "Anything else, Sir Gwaine?” 

Another bark of a laugh came out of Gwaine and then Merlin was flashed Gwaine’s patented play boy smile. “Cheers, Merlin!” Gwaine raised his goblet towards Merlin in a salute before heading off to go talk to Percival and Elyan. 

Merlin truly enjoyed Gwaine’s company, even if he is an ass, so he only smiled and shook his head at Gwaine’s antics. 

Morgana on the other side of the room, still sitting perched in her seat next to Arthur, was thoroughly enjoying herself. She had drawn Arthur’s attention to them as soon as Gwaine had laughed the first time. It wasn’t a hard tactic. She simply had to swing her gaze toward them and since she was in the middle of a conversation with Arthur he would naturally follow her line of sight. 

“They get along rather well don’t they?” Morgana’s words were completely innocent. She wasn’t even smiling too much as she said it. She just blurted it out as though it was an offhand comment that anyone could have made. 

“What?” Arthur was a bit lost. They had just been talking about Uther’s inability to find any decent matches for Morgana, because all men were apparently vile to her, when their attention went to focus on Merlin and Gwaine. 

“Well those two. They are good friends, correct? I don’t think I’m so clueless about friendship.” This time Morgana let her joking come through to make sure the conversation stayed light. 

“Yeah, I guess. I mean they are. I’m pretty sure that Gwaine is closer to Merlin than most anyone else in Camelot.” He had a slight frown on his face now watching their interaction. Merlin had just taken a gulp of Gwaine’s wine. It wasn’t completely unusual, Merlin could hold his own drink and usually after Uther left one of the Knights would offer him a sip. Merlin would almost always turn them down, but this time was clearly different. 

After the last bit of their interaction that no one at the table could actually have heard Morgana made one last comment that she knew would get some kind of reaction. “They are kind of disgustingly cute together.” 

It was a completely pointless statement since there was obviously nothing going on between the two except a close friendship. Gwaine would flirt with anything human it was just second nature to him. 

“Wait! What?” It had taken a minute for the words to sink into Arthur’s head and for him to actually understand what Morgana had meant. 

“I mean look at them Arthur! Merlin all lithe and skinny and Gwaine with those rough edges type of good looks. They are kind of opposites except the coloring, but they look good together.” Morgana took another sip of her wine and let her words sink in. 

“They aren’t… you don’t think…” A small thin sound came out of his mouth as Arthur trailed off his unfinished sentences. He was so fucking screwed with all of this. 

Morgana didn’t laugh outright, but in her head she was definitely doing a victory dance. “I doubt anything is actually happening with them Arthur don’t get all uptight. You know they can sleep with whomever they please.” 

“Of course I know that, ‘Gana! I don’t care if they are both blokes.” Arthur now seemed offended which was actually a good thing. Morgana did need to make sure that it wasn’t anything to do with having a problem with two guys together. And he had called her ‘Gana, which he only used when he was quietly freaking out. 

“Good! I’m glad you aren’t as disgustingly closed minded as some people!” She flashed him a bright smile and managed to peck his cheek before he had turned back to find Merlin in the crowd. 

Arthur had basically checked out of the conversation at that point. Did Merlin and Gwaine have something going on? They were close friends, but that was all Arthur had thought it was until tonight. Were they actually a lot closer than Arthur had ever given them credit for? If they were why wouldn’t Merlin have told him? Did he actually think that Arthur would care about that kind of thing? Arthur downed the rest of his wine and decided that this feast had just become a lot less enjoyable.


	4. The Consequences of Wine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur drinks way too much wine at the feast and has a bit of trouble keeping his thoughts to himself. 
> 
> Sorry about the long wait! Writers block is a real thing, plus school, graduation, holidays, etc, so I haven't had much time to write recently. Hopefully I will be able to write more now!   
> Please read, enjoy, and review!

The rest of the feast had passed by Arthur in a blur. He hadn’t really wanted to be there anymore, but he didn’t want to leave either. If he had left he would have just sat in his room wondering if Merlin and Gwaine were off someplace together. So he just sat at the table and kept drinking the wine. Merlin was attentive to his wine levels as always at feasts, but Arthur was barely even paying attention to that. 

Morgana and all the other ladies in attendance had left with their maids or escorts not long ago. It was the socially acceptable time for them to stop drinking wine and head off to bed. The knights and other men in the court were as always welcome, and partially expected, to stay and keep drinking. This was pretty much routine for every feast that was held and Arthur was used to it all by now. 

He sat and drank, because what else was he to do in this situation? Morgana had brought up the terrifying realization that other people may actually want Merlin for their own. And that was sitting about as well as poison in Arthur’s stomach. He hated the thought of Gwaine and Merlin together even though he had been more than fine with their close friendship not an hour previously. 

He pondered over all of the previous interactions he had witnessed between Merlin and Gwaine. He really had never noticed anything that would actually point to them being together in that way. If they were then they had hidden it very well. He was more than certain that something would have come up on at least one of their quests or those long hunting trips. There was no way that none of the knights had noticed anything and if they had they would have brought it up. As far as Arthur knew none of his men actually cared one way or another if a man wanted a woman or another man as a bed mate, but he did know that whenever they found out about someone’s new lover they always gave that person a hard time about it. 

So it would have been the talk of the camp if anyone had found out that Gwaine and Merlin were together in that sort of way. Arthur figured that they weren’t then, but there was always the chance that Gwaine wanted Merlin in that way and Merlin was just oblivious to his advances. While Gwaine can get almost anyone into bed that he decides he wants there, Merlin is exceedingly good and being oblivious to things like that. He just doesn’t seem to see his own adorably gawky appeal. 

Arthur frowned at his own thoughts and then glanced down at his wine goblet. This was his seventh or eighth cup of it? He was really starting to feel it if that was the way his thoughts were turning. His goblet was still full though so even if he might have lost count he downed the rest of it and waited for Merlin to come by and fill it back up for him. More alcohol would fix it, right? 

It wasn’t long before Merlin was there hesitantly pouring more wine into Arthur’s goblet. “Sire… You seem to be rather smashed at the moment.” 

“Hmmmm. It’s rather good wine tonight, wouldn’t you say?” Arthur knew he had put a bit more sarcasm than necessary into the words. Merlin turned bright red at knowing he had been caught drinking from Gwaine’s goblet. He knew that Arthur really didn’t care about all that, but he was still as red as a ripe tomato. 

Arthur watched the progression of the blush flash high on Merlin’s cheeks and then spread down his neck. He was just starting to let his mind wonder about just how far down that blush travelled when a couple of knights burst into laughter across the room startling Arthur out of his thoughts. Arthur fought down his own blush at his thoughts even though he knew that no one could possibly know that he was having those kinds of thoughts about his manservant. Luckily any blush that did get through was hidden in the alcohol induced flush on his face. 

Without even thinking about it Arthur thrust the goblet out further to get Merlin to fill it since he had been distracted. He needed the alcohol. There were way too many thoughts rolling around in his head that he was imagining and that Morgana put there. Neither of which was ever a good thing. 

Merlin poured the wine into Arthur’s goblet, but he was debating with himself. He felt like he should still say something. Arthur was well on his way to being completely drunk. Merlin bit his bottom lip in indecision for a moment as the wine slowly filled the goblet. Once it had been filled he sat the jug back on the table and tried to make up his mind.   
Arthur watched Merlin’s actions with the heady gaze of someone who knows that he’s very close to being drunk, but he couldn’t help it. He knew he really should tear his gaze away, but he kept his gaze locked on his manservant’s long neck and that smooth pale skin. To distract himself he took a long pull from his newly filled goblet and felt the warmth flow down his throat and his stomach that was already filled with the potent wine. 

“Sire, are you sure you should be drinking any more…?” Merlin ventured carefully. 

Arthur hesitated, drank another mouthful of wine, and tried to think through the haze covering his brain before answering. “Yeah, Merlin, tonight I think I might rather need the wine.” 

Arthur’s words were already slurred and he heard them as they exited his mouth, but he couldn’t make himself care at this point. He had no real idea how to go about handling all of this. His father had a big enough fit when Arthur had had feelings for Gwen or even a Princess that was not the correct political alliance that Uther had wanted to make. Let alone a man that would be unable to create an heir to the throne of Camelot. 

He didn’t even know if Merlin was gay, but if he was then he deserved a hell of a lot better than Arthur who could only offer him back corridor kisses and being his possible secret consort while his wife that he more than likely would never love slept in his bed and carried his children. Merlin deserved someone like Gwaine who would be able to actually claim him in public and not worry about causing some kind of political scandal. Or if Merlin wasn’t in to men then he could always go after Gwen, Arthur had always thought that Merlin had liked her. 

The two images flashed into Arthur’s mind without his desire to think about it. He made a disgusted sound before he decided to down the rest of his wine. If he got completely drunk and didn’t remember the entire night that might be for the best anyway. He really had no idea when he had become so inordinately possessive of Merlin. It really can’t have been a new thing because of the dream. He had never been an overly jealous person as he had always been confident in his own charms. 

This time Arthur went about filling his own goblet from the jug that Merlin had set on the table next to him. He assumed that the last glass that he had drank rather quickly had probably tipped him over into the category of drunk and this one would probably make him spectacularly so. 

Merlin watched as the prince once again filled the goblet and started to drink the wine. He was still unsure about saying anything. It had been such a strange day. Usually he wouldn’t have given a second thought to pointing out Arthur’s level of drunkenness. He would have done it with a laugh and a joke and even thrown in an insult. Today though was a completely different animal, everything had been strange from the start. Arthur had been acting weird all day and it had been throwing Merlin off. 

From the very beginning of their friendship Merlin had had to get used to Arthur’s everyday activities and attitudes. By now Merlin was very used to the way Arthur acted and he was able to react in specific ways and control himself. If Arthur started acting so differently then Merlin would have to get used to a whole new set of things. That was terrifying, that could very well be his undoing. He already had enough trouble keeping his magic from Arthur on a daily basis, let alone the fact that he’s basically lusting after the guy and in love with him from him as well. 

“You do remember that you and some of the knights are going out hunting tomorrow right? You promised your father that you would bring back a couple of deer after the food shortage and all that…” Merlin worded this all carefully making sure that it was just reminding Arthur of his promise instead of forcing him to keep it as he would have usually done. Then he realized exactly how stupid this all was. He can’t go changing how he treated Arthur because of one strange moment earlier that day. That was pointless and absolutely ridiculous. If he didn’t have feelings for the guy he wouldn’t never be acting this way and he would never let something so small change his demeanor towards the prince. “You’ll be hungover either way, but if you get to bed now, you might at least be tolerable in the morning with some of Gaius’ medicine.” 

Arthur took a moment to process those words and with a last longing look at his mostly full goblet he decided to just down it and deal with the consequences tomorrow. “Yes, thank you for that lovely bit of advice Merlin. I’ll expect you to bring me a couple vials of that medicine in the morning. However unlikely it is though, this time you may have stumbled upon some actual good advice. I guess I will head off then. Seems like its winding down anyways.” 

Merlin stood back a little and watched as Arthur slowly made his way up and out of the chair that he had been slumped in for the whole of the night. He was a bit unsteady on his feet, but did manage to stay mostly upright on his own. He stood still for a moment and let the alcohol settle deep in his body. He was definitely going to be feeling this tomorrow, he probably should have stopped drinking about four cups ago, but he really did feel as though he needed it tonight. 

“Oi, Merlin! Come here!” Gwaine yelled from across the room. “We need an impartial judge! Elyan, Percival, and I are going to have a drinking contest.” 

Merlin and Arthur both swung their gazes towards the voice. Gwaine was giving Merlin that giant grin of his that has worked to charm more than one girl into his bed. Merlin smiled back at them all standing there holding their almost overflowing goblets. While Merlin might be smiling at the three of them, Arthur was rather less than pleased. When Merlin made to go over toward the three knights Arthur made a snap decision that he honestly thought he wasn’t even capable of at his level of drunkenness. He forced himself to stumble a bit and catch himself on Merlin’s shoulder clutching a bit of his scarf and shirt in his hand. 

Merlin turned back to Arthur before he had even been able to take a step in the direction toward Gwaine. His smile had turned a bit more concerned, but there was an ‘I told you so’ that was playing across his features. 

“Hmm maybe I did drink a bit more than I should have. Didn’t much notice it until I stood up. Want to actually do your job and make sure I get to my room without falling down the stairs?” Arthur tried to keep as much annoyance out of his voice as possible and keep his usually bantering sarcasm in his voice. 

“Whatever you say Arthur, I live to serve…” Merlin rolled his eyes and then tossed a casual comment to the three men waiting on his reply. “Looks like you’ll have to find a different impartial judge Gwaine.” 

“Aw, come on Merlin! You’re the only one these gits will trust to judge it fairly!” Now both Elyan and Percival were glaring daggers at Gwaine as he continued to smile. He always found a reason to smile. Pretty much every situation, even the near death ones, was somewhat amusing to him. 

“You know you’d just win the damn competition anyway, Gwaine!” The parting comment was thrown over his shoulder with an easy grin. Merlin turned back toward Arthur who had yet to let go of his shoulder and started walking with him to the doors. 

“Too right you are, Merlin!” Laughter followed Gwaine’s last yell and was quickly followed by the two smacks that was clearly identified as Percival and Elyan smacking Gwaine on the back of his head. The loud echoed “Ow,” that followed was another clear indicator, even if Gwaine would later deny it. 

Merlin chuckled as they made their way out of the hall and into the corridor. Arthur let his hand stay where it was while they walked for another few moments to keep up the idea that does need help to walk to his rooms. He might be overly drunk, but he’s not so far gone that he can’t walk properly. 

“Ugh, I hate him…” Apparently while being drunk hadn’t much impaired Arthur’s ability to walk it had clearly impaired his ability to keep his thoughts to himself. 

“What? Who?” Merlin’s face was shocked. He had definitely not expected those words to pop out of Arthur’s mouth. 

“Never mind…,” the words were barely audible when they came tumbling out of Arthur. He mumbled it while blushing, he sincerely hoped that the alcohol content in his blood stream would hide the fact that his cheeks were flaming right now. 

“Wait… Arthur,” Merlin tugged him to a stop in the middle of the corridor. “No way, you can can’t just say something like that and expect me not to ask. Who do you hate? The last person we even interacted with was Gwaine and you don’t hate Gwaine… Wait! Were you talking about Gwaine?” 

With long, quick strides Arthur started back down the corridor. Merlin started after him for a long moment before scampering after him to catch up to his longer stride. “Arthur! Wait! What in the world are you talking about?” 

“Leave it alone, Merlin.” The words were practically a growl when they came out of Arthur’s mouth. 

“But I’m seriously confused here. You don’t hate Gwaine. He’s one of your best and most loyal knights. You two are good friends. He’s even my good friend. So why say you hate him?” 

 

This time Arthur was the one who stopped in the middle of the corridor, but he didn’t stay standing there. He was still drunk after all. He moved to lean against the wall and then looked at Merlin carefully. “Come on, Merlin. You know most of them are only here because of you. They are better friends with you than they are with me any day.” 

Merlin’s face flashed instant confusion. “Arthur that is so far from the truth. Maybe I talked them into getting here. Maybe they are friends with me. They stay and they fight for you though. They fight in your name Arthur. That isn’t for me.” 

Some of the fight went out of Arthur this time. Merlin was right, the men were loyal knights of Arthur’s. He had no reason to doubt that and they were friends of his. Just because they were also friends of Merlin’s doesn’t mean that they weren’t his as well. 

“So you and Gwaine are just friends then?” As soon as the words popped out of his mouth he wanted to slap his hand over it. Apparently his brain to mouth filter was still not working. He had to clinch his hands into fists to physically stop himself from doing anything to give himself away as being overly embarrassed by his own damn question. 

Surprisingly enough Merlin didn’t answer quickly. He stammered for a solid minute before Arthur mustered up the courage to raise his eyes and look at him. Merlin was blushing the brightest red he had ever seen on his manservant, which made Arthur’s pulse race and his stomach drop to the floor. His pulse raced because Merlin looked more than a little bit gorgeous when he was flushed like that, but his stomach was on the floor because if he was this embarrassed then maybe there was some truth to the him and Gwaine concept. 

“Merlin…?” Arthur decided that the only way he could deal with this was to just get the bad news over with quickly. If Merlin and Gwaine were together he needed to know before the hunting trip anyways. He needed to pull himself together and get over this little insanity of a crush he had. 

“What? Oh! No! Arthur! Are you crazy? No! Gwaine and I are definitely just friends. He may flirt with everything that moves, but his tastes definitely lay more in the female direction. I mean I may like guys, but he most certainly doesn’t, not like that anyway. I mean I guess I never really asked him, he may have experimented once or twice, but not since I’ve known him. Plus I really don’t think he’s my type.” Merlin was rambling. He knew he was rambling and he still couldn’t make himself stop. Oh, God… Did he really just admit that? He slapped both hands over his still open mouth and leaned against the wall across from Arthur. 

Merlin was absolutely horrified! He had just spilled his biggest secret, okay his second biggest, to Arthur. And he wasn’t even the drunk one! Arthur on the other hand was stuck in his own little embarrassed bubble so it took a minute for Merlin’s words to even break through to him. It was clear when the meaning of the words did hit Arthur though because his head snapped up and his eyes we locked on Merlin’s flushed face. 

“You like guys?” He probably could have been a bit more diplomatic about it all, but that really was all he could come up with at the moment. 

Merlin stood there almost shell shocked. His teeth worried over his bottom lip in an unconscious gesture. All he could do was nod his head. He couldn’t force his mouth to open and repeat his words again. It was bad enough that he had already said it once he didn’t want to embarrass himself again. He expected that any second now Arthur was going to sack him and tell him to never set foot in his rooms again. Why would he want a gay manservant dressing and undressing him anyway? 

Arthur finally took enough notice of the look on Merlin’s face that was so much more than just embarrassment and realized that he was genuinely scared, terrified actually. “You know that’s fine right? I really, honestly, don’t mind at all that you like guys, Merlin.” 

“So you aren’t going to sack me then?” Merlin’s smile was small but hopeful when he looked over at Arthur. 

“God no! They’d stick me with George. Can’t stand the guy. Seriously he gives me the creeps. I don’t know what it is about him, but he freaks me out.” The shiver that runs down Arthur’s back is an honest one George really is a creep. He had more than once been seen cradling the shoes he was supposed to be polishing. It was just weird. 

“I’m fairly certain that he creeps everyone out, it isn’t just you Arthur.” Merlin’s face scrunches up as he thinks about the few times he’s had to actually interact with George. Never a pleasant time. 

“Oi! Wait! Now I’m getting distracted. How do you know that Gwaine isn’t gay then? And what do you mean he isn’t your type? I thought he was everyone’s type.” Arthur was still a bit bleary eyed from all the alcohol, but he was still going to clear up this whole conversation. The bits and pieces of it were just going to come to him at different times. 

“Oh, yeah I was hoping that you would have just kinda ignored the rest of that whole babbling mess that I said.” Hopeful blue eyes were turned on Arthur who just stood there staring back at him resolutely. “I guess not huh?” 

“All right. Well, you sure you’re actually okay with it Arthur?” Merlin was still being timid about this. Arthur thought back, Merlin had never had a girlfriend while he had been at Camelot. Arthur had just assumed that he was straight like anyone else. However, if that wasn’t the case some part of him wasn’t exactly just okay with it. If someone were to pry deep enough they would probably have called that emotion happiness. 

“Of course, Merlin. I honestly don’t mind. My dad might be old fashioned, but you know he and I don’t see eye to eye on most things.” Arthur’s words seemed to have the desired effect of calming Merlin down even if he seemed to blush more deeply. 

“All right. Well remember how we all went out after the big dragon attack? Since we all survived, it was kind of worth celebrating. Well you were off with the majority of your other knights. I was with Gwen, Elyan, Morgana, Percival, Lancelot, and Gwaine. Naturally I got absolutely smashed because it was Gwaine feeding me drinks and no one can keep up with Gwaine drink for drink. Well he was the one to make sure I got back to my room okay. Of course, drunk me decides that it’s a good idea to attempt to kiss Gwaine. Surprisingly, I actually managed it. He pushed me away said he’s completely straight, though if he were inclined to go after blokes that he would have tried to get into my bed ages ago. We both laughed it off and we are completely fine now. Luckily, it doesn’t make things awkward. Though, he does make it a point to blatantly flirt with me now.” Merlin lets out a sigh and slumps back against the wall. It had been so embarrassing getting turned down by Gwaine. He was hoping that the playboy would at least be open to both guys and girls, but apparently not. He figured he was destined to a life a celibacy in Camelot. 

Something horrible twisted in Arthur’s stomach when Merlin talked about how he had kissed Gwaine. It wasn’t exactly fair considering Arthur had basically only took notice of the guy in this sense this morning, but it was still there and it was a visceral reaction. That knot became a bit looser at the mention of Gwaine pushing Merlin away though. So that was as far as they had gotten, which was a plus. 

“Gwaine flirts with everyone Merlin. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about there. I once heard him talking to my father and I think he actually rendered Uther speechless.” The look of confusion that had been on the king’s face isn’t one that is seen very often. 

“Well that is something I’d pay to see.” Merlin let out a laugh that had been remarkably absent from this conversation so far. 

“So what about Gwaine makes him not your type? He’s fit, good looking I suppose, funny, nice… sometimes.” Arthur was trying to get at what Merlin actually did like in a guy more than what he didn’t, but he had no idea how to go about asking that without completely making an arse out of himself. 

“Yeah, no those are all good qualities. Probably why I tried to kiss him even though he isn’t my type. He’s just not who I pictured myself with I guess? Like when I close my eyes and I tried to picture Gwaine there it would always shift away and someone else would appear instead you know?” Merlin’s explanation was a solid one. The problem was that Arthur knew all too well because he had been having that problem all damn day. 

“Yeah I know exactly what you mean.” Arthur had gone through the entire list of beautiful princesses and Gwen and tried to picture himself with them. Every single time it always faded away to be him and Merlin instead. 

Arthur finally broke away from the wall and continued a bit unsteady on his legs possibly from the alcohol, possibly from the conversation that they had just had, towards his chambers. Merlin was following just a pace behind him. 

When they reached the doors even Arthur knew that it was a pivotal moment for them. Arthur couldn’t just send him away. Merlin had been nervous about Arthur sacking him because he had found out that he was gay. So Arthur needed to let Merlin do his job tonight. Otherwise their friendship could take a hit that it might not be able to bounce back from. Deep breathing would get him through this and maybe thinking about Gwaine and Merlin kissing. 

Confidently striding into his rooms and leaving the door open for Merlin to follow after him he stopped and stood in the center. He waited for a moment, then another and when nothing happened he turned back toward the door. Merlin was just standing there staring in at Arthur. “Well? Going to do your job? I did say that I wasn’t sacking you.” 

Merlin smiled that overly large and disgustingly endearing smile that just about melted everyone who he came into contact with before moving to do his job and get Arthur ready for bed. 

Merlin’s hands moved over the clothing like they have done a thousand times. Arthur willed his body not to react and when it started to he closed his eyes and mentally pulled up the image of Merlin pulling Gwaine in close and kissing him eagerly. That image tightened his stomach in knots and killed any arousal that he had been feeling. 

Merlin finished his job and Arthur was finally in bed. He started going around the bed chamber and extinguishing the candles. As he neared the door and reached for the last one he finally spoke. “Thanks Arthur, for being understanding, and not sacking me.” 

“I wouldn’t have you any other way Merlin.” Arthur’s voice was teasing and he let out a small laugh. He must still be drunk if he was saying thing like that. Anyone else would be able to read so much into the words. He really hoped that Merlin was still as oblivious as ever. 

Merlin just extinguished the candle and left the room, the door closed with a small click behind him. Light breathing was the only sound in the room and Arthur lay there listening to his own breath. He fell asleep after only a few minutes the alcohol still running through his system. 

The morning came bright, the sun shining in through Arthur’s windows. He could feel the warmth on his skin, but all he wanted to do was crawl away from it and hide in a dark cool corner. When the door to his room opened Arthur let out a small pained noise of utter misery. 

“Arthur I brought you some of Gaius’ hangover medicine, but you have to sit up to drink it.” A soft whisper came floating over to him. It didn’t hurt as much as the sun did. Arthur took much too long to actually register what the voice meant, but when he did he started to attempt to sit up. 

Once he was halfway up he pushed himself back against the headboard so that he wasn’t holding himself up anymore, but he was propped there. He didn’t even attempt to open his eyes. His hand blindly shot out and made a grabbing motion as though he was going to grab the vial of medicine even though he had no idea where it was. A small chuckle was heard and then someone grabbed his hand and a small vial was placed into it. 

Arthur carefully moved it to his mouth somehow knowing that it would already be uncorked. He drank the whole think down in one go and then laid his head back to let the medicine do its work. It would take a good few minutes so he just kept his eyes closed and breathed. 

The headache was the first thing to lessen, soon he was able to open his eyes without incredible agony. Then the nausea went away, which was an incredible relief. Merlin was standing across the room with a tray of food that he brought over once Arthur finally looked less pale and more or less himself. Arthur was able to eat his breakfast and get dressed before Merlin started in on him 

“So what do you remember from last night?” The question was asked hesitantly. As though he wasn’t even sure if he should be asking it. 

“I remember everything. I might have been drunk enough for one hell of a hangover, but I wasn’t drunk enough to black out. It’s still all fine Merlin. Don’t worry. Though I do think even you can do better than Gwaine…” 

“Thanks Arthur- Hey! You prat!” Merlin’s face was that light red blush again that was just begging to be deepened, but Arthur really really shouldn’t. 

“Come on we have to meet the rest of the knights.” One deep, calming breath for Arthur and then he was leading them out of his rooms and down to the stables.


	5. Hunting Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Knights go hunting and things don't exactly go according to plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read and review! I hope you enjoy!

Arthur and Merlin made their way toward the stables and met up with Gwaine, Elyan, Percival, Leon, and Lancelot. They seemed to have been there for a bit already as they had all already saddled their horses along with Arthur’s and Merlin’s. 

“Took you two bloody long enough. We all got pissed last night. We were still here on time.” Elyan grumbled at them as they walked up. 

“Oi, calm down you.” Merlin laughed while he took out extra vials of Gaius’ medicine. He tossed them to each of the now smiling men. 

“Merlin have I told you recently how much I adore you?” Gwaine purred out as he drank the potion down. 

Every single man seemed to be in agreement “I think you could all do with telling me that more often, actually. With how often I seem to save your sorry hides.” Merlin of course laughed it off as a joke. None of them knew how true that statement really was, except Lancelot, so of course they all laughed along. 

“Come on, Merlin, let’s all get going.” Lancelot quickly ruffled Merlin’s hair and then swung himself up on his horse. 

All of the men were quick to follow his lead though. Lancelot always seemed to make sure to go out of his way to not laugh too loudly at those kinds of jokes since he did actually know that Merlin had saved their lives on more than once occasion. After the knights had all let the medicine take effect they were in a much more pleasant mood. Clearly ready for a few hours on horse back and ready to kill a few deer. 

Merlin was never fond of going out on the hunting trips, it’s not like he ever got much out of it. Especially before when he wasn’t very friendly with any of Arthur’s knights. At least now he could actually enjoy the company even if he didn’t much enjoy the sport of it all. 

They started off at a brisk pace with the horses. They covered ground quickly over the flat land right outside of the castle. Then, heading into the woods they slowed down considerably. They had only been travelling for about three hours when they stopped for a bit. They rested the horses and looked around for any sign that deer had been through there recently. 

“Looks like the deer were here. Hours ago. Can’t tell how long since it’s a dry season. I’d say heading east though.” Leon was the ever present efficient knight on these trips. Always keeping them on task. 

They waited another twenty minutes or so all of the men happy to be just free of the hard work of training and the everyday work of their usual days. Arthur called for everyone to get back onto their horses and that they were going to head toward the clearing that they commonly camped in. It was east of here and it made sense to head there as the deer were headed in that direction as well. 

They made it to the clearing a little under four hours later. It was still the bright afternoon sun so the knights strung their bows and tied the horses to the trees on loose enough leads that they could graze. Merlin followed along behind of course, he really never knows when Arthur is going to run headlong into some crazy danger. The horses were all well trained enough to stay put, but, they weren’t going be taking chances that one of them might wander off at the smell of something wonderful or some distracting noise.   
Arthur chose to go out with Percival who was always the quietest of the men and Merlin automatically just followed along after Arthur and Percival. He didn’t hunt, but he wasn’t planning on letting Arthur go off with weapons and potentially getting himself killed without Merlin to stop him. 

They all moved out in separate directions from the clearing. If one group managed to bag a deer and none of the others did then of course they would brag the entire night. However the main hunting would be taking place tomorrow morning when the deer would be out and still grazing in the soft morning light. That was the time when most of them would have the chance at actually getting a shot at a deer. 

Merlin moved a few feet behind the two men. He tried to stay as quiet as possible. He had been continuously yelled at due to his inability to move quietly enough not to startle the deer away. He did manage today without incident which was lucky considering it all. He really didn’t want to be the reason that Arthur didn’t manage to shoot an arrow at a deer this time around, or a unicorn. Though, they both knew that he wasn’t about to make that mistake again. 

By the time night was just about to settle in Arthur and Percival were finally ready to call it a day having shot at a total of two deer, but not having managed to actually kill either one of them. So the three of them made their way back to the clearing that would be their campsite for the night. 

Gwaine and Elyan were already back having also had no luck catching a deer. They had set up a fire in the middle of the clearing. The horses were off to one side and Arthur and Percival both dropped their weapons on the pile that Gwaine and Elyan had already started. Leon and Lancelot got back about ten minutes later. By that time the fire was roaring and they had a stew set to boiling. They had also had no luck with bagging a deer and just dropped their weapons in a pile across camp by the horses as well. 

They all hated going on a hunting trip that was a dud. It wasn’t nearly as fun when they didn’t actually get to shoot anything. Merlin always thought it was a bit funny though. Arthur and all the knights made it this whole big thing when they didn’t get to shoot a deer. That was it. Just shooting a deer. That was the entire issue for them. They get to fight dragons and mythical creatures and prophecies and so many things, and yet they get moody over a deer.

They all sat around while the stew cooked. It was as per usual Merlin’s job to do the cooking. Who else would? He was the only servant on this trip. And they were knights. Granted usually in these kinds of situations is when he really desires the ability to just say that he is an amazingly powerful sorcerer who can pretty much do anything in the realm of magic. He always refrains of course. He tends to like his head attached to his body thank you very much. 

They each got a serving of the stew and piece of the bread they had packed with them. It was really starting to get darker now. The woods were starting to elongate with the shadows of the trees from the setting sun. 

One of the many reasons why they likes this clearing was that there was a small river close by. Merlin took all the dirty dishes down there and began scrubbing them clean. He had been gone maybe twenty minutes give or take a few before he was heading back towards camp. That was when he heard the sound of fighting coming from the clearing. It couldn’t have been the sparing. They were never that stupid. That would draw way too much attention to themselves out here. 

Merlin ran up on the clearing on the far side. Clearly Lancelot had been the only one who had been able to get to his sword. He had been sitting the closest after all. Merlin watched as he disabled one man and moved on to a second bandit. Leon had been creative and had picked up a branch that had fallen to the ground and was using it as a defensive weapon. 

Percival and Elyan were using a completely different approach where they would duck and avoid their attacker’s moves, but then as the attacker would focus on one of them the other would move in to try and get a jab in his face or his ribs. 

Gwaine and Arthur were both getting the worst of it. They both had two men attack each of them. Merlin knew that at least a couple of the bandits had seen him enter the clearing, but then had dismissed him as a threat. Merlin tends to enjoy using this to his advantage whenever he can. 

Merlin glanced over to where the weapons were laying. He couldn’t reach them from here. He cursed under his breath and the cast a glace around. He didn’t notice anyone looking towards him. The knights were all quite busy. 

Merlin let his magic flow out of him and then some of the swords, still in their scabbards came flying toward him. He caught them easily, he isn’t as clumsy as everyone clearly thinks he is.

He quickly unsheathed the first sword, “Arthur!” Merlin called out. 

Arthur quickly turned around at Merlin’s voice. The sword was already in air. Arthur plucked it out of the air by the hilt and the quickly dispatched the first man that came at him then he attacked the other one. Merlin turned his attention back to the fight and decided where the other sword was needed the most. 

“Gwaine!” Merlin called. He tossed the other sword and Gwaine caught it as well. He unlike Arthur, made a show. Once Gwaine had caught the sword his face change from worry to a grin beyond measure. He made quick work of the two men in front of him. By that moment both men that Arthur had been fighting were down as well. 

All the men were down actually except for the man that was fighting the dodging duo of Percival and Elyan. The man started running when he realized that he was really badly outnumbered. Merlin couldn’t help himself, and he let his power flow out of him once again and a tree root grew up and out of the ground completely tripping the man. There was a chorus of ouch from the knights that had been watching as he fell, but they still went to collect hum. They wanted to know why these men had decided to attack the Prince’s party. 

They bound him with some of the rope they had brought to tie the deer to the backs of the horses when they had caught some the next morning. Then Leon took one of the water skins and splashed it over the man’s face. It was just enough to rouse the man from his mostly passed out state from his fall over the tree root. 

“What did you hope to accomplish by attacking knights of Camelot?” Leon asked. Whenever possible they always made sure not to blatantly state who Arthur was. They wanted to see if the man would give that information up himself. 

“We didn’t know you were knights! I swear! We only attacked because our master told us to! He- He said you wouldn’t have swords on you! That you would be an easy target to steal from!” The man started crying as he spoke. “Now all my men are dead. I never should have listened to him. We thought something was off, but he promised us so much. We couldn’t chance turning it down.” 

“Who was this man?” This time it was Arthur who spoke. He was commanding just like a king, or a future king, should be. 

“None of us knew. We never saw his face or gave us a name. He promised us anything that you had on you plus a bag of gold before and after it was done. He just wanted proof. He did actually give us the before payment. We shared it with our families. Oh, god…” The man began to weep again and repeated over and over how sorry he was. 

“Bring your family and the families of those men to Camelot we can give you shelter there. This man will be angry that you didn’t succeed. He’ll want to have his original payment back from you. He’ll probably take it out on your families when you can’t give it back.” This time as Arthur spoke he paced in front of the man and his knights. 

“How can you be certain we’ll get shelter? I understand that the knights are important, but you aren’t the king.” The man replied, once he found words again. 

“No, I’m not the king. I am his son though.” Arthur’s words were somewhat reminiscent to when he spoke to Merlin so long ago when they first met. This time though the words held none of the arrogance that they once did. 

Oh, Oh jeez! This was planned then? That man… he wanted us to attack you?” The man whispered frantically. 

“More than likely that’s the case, yeah. Look, what’s your name?” Merlin finally spoke. Everyone else was just being awkward about it all. Someone needed to talk to break the silence. 

“Michael Kirkland. I live in a small fishing village with my family and about a hundred other people. None of us have ever been to Camelot before.” Michael spoke while pulling his knees to his chest for comfort. He was a grown man, but he was in a situation that no one should ever have to deal with. 

“I’m from Ealdor. So I know the feeling.” Merlin talked to him with a small smile on his face. All the knights stared at him. This was exactly how Merlin had won all of them over without them even knowing he had done it. “Before I came here I didn’t even know who this guy was either. I called him a prat on my first day and ended up in the cells for it.” 

Everyone burst out laughing. It was absolutely inevitable. That was a really fond memory actually. It was hilarious that Arthur’s friendship with Merlin started off that way. Merlin treated him like an equal since the very first moment they met. Even Michael couldn’t contain a small laugh and smile at the image. 

“So go back to your village yeah? And just get to the women and kids and only pack the bare essentials for the trip, leave off everything else. Then make your way to Camelot. Whoever this guy is, the one thing we do know is that he probably won’t take failure lightly.” Merlin spoke with genuine care in his voice towards a man who had just been attacking his best and closest friends. 

Arthur stood there side by side with his best knights and just absolutely admired the man squatting in front of the crying and bound man that was terrified on the ground. It was amazing how Merlin could just talk to someone and know exactly what to say. He could establish a rapport with someone in such a small amount of time. 

Lancelot moved forward and untied the man. They let him get up and stretch his aching muscles and then proceeded to give him a water skin while he made his way back to his village. 

“Be careful Michael. Remember to get them and to travel light and fast.” Merlin told him as Michael was setting off. They all made sure to stay there watching him go until the man was well on his way and out of their sight. 

“So guys, who do you think it was? Clearly someone knew of our plans to go on a hunt. And then someone went and hired these men to attack us. So someone has a spy within Camelot, obviously. I wouldn’t think the man himself would be there because I don’t think they would have had time to go from Camelot to the village and be back for the feast if he were important enough.” Merlin was rambling again and he knew it. He always did this when Arthur’s life was threatened. Usually though only Gaius saw it and he was used to it. 

All of the knights just stood there and watched him as he paced back and forth and talked and waved his arms around like a lunatic. “Merlin. Merlin! Merlin!” It took a total of three times before Gwaine’s shouting actually got his attention. 

“What? Huh?” Merlin stopped in mid stride and spun back towards the others. He was right in front of Gwaine and Lancelot. 

“Merlin. We’ll figure it all out. Right now though we should probably just pack up and start heading back toward Camelot. Right?” Lancelot said. His voice was always calm. He was the voice of reason. 

“Yes! Yeah of course. We need to head back.” Merlin, finally with a job to do and an actual plan in his mind set about the task of saddling the horses back up and watering them for the ride. He made sure that the campsite was all packed and everyone had their gear and they were ready to move out in no time. 

Leon and Percival were riding the two horses in the lead with Arthur right behind and Lancelot and Elyan on either side of him and then Merlin and Gwaine were right behind them. They weren’t going to chance them being ambushed again. If they were they would be ready. And at this point Merlin would even chance using his magic if he had to to keep Arthur safe. 

“So, Merlin…” Gwaine began. Merlin could hear the smile in his voice. It was the smile that Gwaine used before teasing him for something, it was always the same one. 

“What is it Gwaine?” Merlin asked with a long sigh followed close behind. 

“I saw what you did back there.” The hint of a smile was still there, but now his tone was all serious. Strange. Usually Gwaine is never serious. 

“What? Me rambling like a loon? That isn’t the first time you’ve seen that, Gwaine.” Merlin lets out a small laugh. It really wasn’t. And Gwaine had seen him drunk so he’d actually seen him worse. 

“That’s not what I meant. At the fight. I saw what you did.” This time when Gwaine spoke Merlin had to swallow a large urge to panic. 

“Tossing you a sword? Yeah. I tossed one to Arthur too. Sorry, but, I did kinda have to toss one to him first. My job and all.” Merlin laughed it off, hoping this was all Gwaine meant. If it wasn’t then things would be about to blow up in a big way. 

“That isn’t what I meant and you know it Merlin. You were across the campsite from the weapons and I was straight across from you. I saw your eyes go liquid gold for a split second and then the swords were in your hand. Then again when the man tripped over a tree root that wasn’t there a second before that. Come on Merlin. Earlier today when you said that you constantly saved us you weren’t just joking were you. You really truly do save us all the time and you don’t get any credit for it. God, but Merlin! You deserve all of it!” Gwaine’s voice was starting to rise above the level of a whisper and Merlin was just about at the panic level again. If anyone heard him… 

“Gwaine! Shhhh…” Merlin was frantic about getting the other man to quiet down. 

“Oh! Right of course! Not everyone would know. Sorry…” Gwaine looked down as he apologized. He actually apologized. That in and of itself was amazing. 

“Does this mean you aren’t planning to go and tell the king on me then…?” Merlin whispered sort of brokenly at him. 

“WHAT?” Gwaine yelled out without even thinking about it. Everyone turned back to look at him completely started. “Sorry! Just heard about George’s shoe fetish. Don’t mind me.” 

Everyone laughed and turned back around. George really did commonly enough freak people out that it wasn’t out of the ordinary. Merlin still had his face turned away though. If Gwaine was about to say that he was going to do so then he really didn’t want to have to look into his friend’s eyes as he did and have all those happy memories shattered by new bad ones. 

“Merlin, look at me.” Gwaine waited until Merlin did so to say anything else. “I would never and will never do anything to hurt you, all right? You are one of my best mates. You’ve probably saved my life more times than I could count. I owe you a hell of a lot more than just keeping your secret.” 

“Thanks Gwaine. Thank you, for not hating me for having magic.” Merlin spoke softly. 

“How does that work anyway? I thought you had to like study or something?” Gwaine’s nose automatically wrinkled at the thought. 

“I was born with magic. I could move things around since before I could speak.” Merlin was proud of this even though it had gotten him in more trouble and danger than he should have been able to live through. 

“So you’re basically the strongest sorcerer in the world.” Gwaine said with a snort. It was a joke from him, making light of the situation as always. 

“Actually you got it right. I kind of am…” Merlin bit his bottom lip and just shrugged.

Gwaine’s jaw just dropped. “Holy shit. Are you being serious right now?” When merlin shook his head yes, Gwaine took a minute to digest that news before replying. “Merlin, are you sure you don’t want in my bed?” 

This time Merlin was the one who let out a laugh. “If I remember correctly and I do, you were the one who turned me down Gwaine.” 

“Right, and why was that again?” Gwaine responded still just staring at him. 

“I think it had something to do with how you are very much ‘not gay’” Merlin quoted. 

“Ah, yes, I seem to remember now. I may want to reevaluate that.” Gwaine was glancing Merlin over as though he would any girl he would usually chat up in a bar or any girl that he would try to charm at court. 

“You and I both know that you are definitely a ladies man. If you had even been the least bit tempted you would have kissed me back when I made a move on you.” Merlin easily let the explanation roll off his tongue. As attractive as Gwaine is Merlin wanted to have bed partners that were more than happy to be in his bed, not ones that had to evaluate if they wanted to be there or not. 

“Fine, I concede the point. So please tell me I’m not the last to know. I feel like I’m horribly behind over here.” Gwaine complained. 

“Far from it actually. You are still one of the very few who knows I’m gay considering I kissed you.” That made Gwaine sit up straighter already, the ego on that man knew no bounds it seemed. “And as for the other bit there’s three other people who know and now a fourth with you.” 

“All this time. All these years and only four people know. Merlin, that is amazing! That is astounding actually. How have we all not noticed? Clearly we are all idiots.” Gwaine went from smiling to frowning so fast it was almost comical. 

“Yes, well I have basically blurted it out to all of you, you all seem to be hell bent on ignoring it. So I just keep on with my life as a manservant.” Merlin’s small smile was quirked up at the corners. 

“Merlin, if you have so much power… why ever settle for being the servant?” Gwaine spoke, but Merlin just smiled. 

“Gwaine you have a title and a lordship right? Why ever settle for just being a regular old knight? We are both happy as we are, doing what we want, living the life we want. Why be anything else?” This time they both smiled at each other in complete understanding. 

“Okay one more question. So Arthur and who are the other two?” Gwaine’s question threw Merlin off it didn’t make much sense to him. 

“Wait, what?” Merlin blurted. 

“Well one of the people who knows has to be Arthur, right? Who are the other two?” Gwaine repeated. 

“Arthur doesn’t know.” Merlin mumbled. 

“He doesn’t? Well why not? You know he would never let anything happen to you! None of us would. We all care about you Merlin. Arthur most of all.” Gwaine spoke like it was the simplest thing in the world, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t even close. 

“I know he probably wouldn’t. I just I don’t want to force him to look at his father and lie to him every day. I also don’t want to have to tell him that I’ve been lying to him every day. You know how much stock he puts on trust. He’ll hate me for it.” His voice tapered off towards the end there. It was almost silent on the night air. 

“I doubt very much that Arthur could ever actually hate you for anything.” Gwaine’s voice had softened now. Hearing how Merlin had been affected by it had made his tone softer. 

“I can’t chance that he will though. I don’t think I could handle it if he did hate me. I think getting beheaded would be easier.” Merlin was clearly hurt by just the thought of it all. 

“Oh, Merlin. You’re in love with the prat aren’t you?” Gwaine’s voice had a groan in it that was full of complete frustration. All Arthur had ever show was signs of being straight. That was not exactly good for Merlin. 

“Yeah, Gwaine. I think I might be. Bit of an issue, huh? I mean manservant, way below his station, also a man, so all kinds of problems there. Or on the other side, all powerful sorcerer who has been lying to him, but still a man.” Merlin tried a smile, but it came off a bit watery. 

“Well, prince or not, if he hurts you I will kick his ass.” Gwaine promised Merlin with a deadly glint in his eyes. Merlin let a small laugh free. 

“Thanks Gwaine. Seriously thank you. The others who know are Gaius, Lancelot, and Morgana by the way. Just so you know who to be careful around and all that.” 

“Lancelot knows?! How in the hell?” Gwaine’s jaw was gaping open. 

“I had to help him kill the griffin I tried to play it off but he called me on it. Apparently I hadn’t developed my skills at lying yet.” Merlin smirked. 

“You still haven’t.” Gwaine automatically replied. 

“And yet here we are you having only just found out about it all.” 

“Touché. Round one goes to you Merlin.” Gwaine made a pretend bowing gesture. 

After that the talking stopped and they all just let the horses walk. They stopped a few times in the night to let the horses get something to eat and drink and to stretch. They even let themselves eat some of the bread they had packed. By the morning they had made it back to Camelot and were riding up on the gates. 


	6. Tales of Last Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the ambush from the previous night everyone is trying reason out what to do with their limited information.

When they had made it back to Camelot the mood was somber. They still had no real idea what was the reason behind the attack since this unknown man had hired a third party to attack them and hadn’t given them a reason for it all.

They were back in Camelot safe and sound, but they were exhausted and a bit worse for wear. Quiet surrounded them, they were all trying to figure out what this attack was a sign of. It had been a fairly long while since anyone had seriously attacked Arthur and tried to kill him.

Of course a lot of people hated Uther and wanted to make him miserable and make Camelot fall by taking out its heir and killing Arthur. It had just been so long they had been getting lax about it all. Merlin felt absolutely useless at this point.

Yes, he may have managed to save them from being slaughtered like animals in that clearing, but clearly he wasn’t doing very well at his destiny chosen job if this big plot was hatching and he had absolutely no clue it was happening. He was kicking himself over this. He should have been more alert to things in Camelot. He should have been watching who was listening to them too closely or watching them too often.

They all left their horses at the stables, usually Merlin would have stayed and helped brushed them down and feed them, but he was too exhausted and mad at himself this time around. When they all got inside the castle they slumped to their own quarters. Merlin of course followed Arthur to his.

“Go ahead and just head off, Merlin. I’m just going to pass out for a solid few hours. So, there really isn’t anything you can do. Actually you should probably do the same. You look dead on your feet.” Arthur’s voice was tried and dry just like all of theirs had been by the time they made it back. They had ridden all night and gotten no sleep. It wasn’t exactly a fun trip.

“All right, Arthur. Just let me know if you need something.” Merlin waited until Arthur had gone into his chambers and shut the door before he turned and made his way off to Gaius’. When he finally made it there, half dead on his feet and burst through the door Gaius gave a shout and dropped the five vials of brightly colored potentially dangerous liquids that he was carrying.

Merlin without even a second thought stopped them in midair. “Oh!” Gaius outburst as he saw this and then turned to stare at Merlin. “I didn’t think you were supposed to be back yet!”

“We weren’t. We got attacked by some men who were hired by a man with a lot of money and a least some power and pull. That’s the only clues we have on who he is. It’s a mess, Gaius. I should have been paying closer attention.” While Merlin had been talking he let the different colored liquids float over to the table. He ranted and paced across the room. He did manage to remember to let the door swing closed first though.

“Merlin! You need to calm down. If someone new is out there plotting something then we will handle it. As always, I am here to help you. And I’m sure Morgana would be delighted to have something more practical to use her magic on. You and Arthur make a good team for a reason. Just because some new threat has popped up for the first time in a while doesn’t mean that you haven’t done well.” Gaius lectured the boy. He was always the first one to jump down his own throat when Arthur got injured he took that very seriously.

“Something else happened as well. When the attack happened everyone had been cut off from their weapons. So I had to use a bit of magic to save us. Gwaine saw me. So he knows.” Merlin spoke softly. He knows how Gaius gets about people finding out about his magic.

“What? Merlin! What did he say? Are you all right? Is he going to the king about it?” Gaius ranted.

“No, he isn’t. Gwaine was fine with it all, really. He said he would never tell anyone, especially King Uther.” Merlin gave Gaius a reassuring smile.

Gaius let the breath he hadn’t realized that he was holding go. “Well that is a relief at least. Good. That’s good. I have always liked that the knights are more trustworthy under Arthur’s leadership. And they see you as their friend.”

“Yeah I know they do. They are all really great guys. Arthur still doesn’t know though.” Merlin mumbled. He always hated the fact that Arthur didn’t know. He hated lying to the man that was his best friend. The more people that knew the more he felt that he really was lying to him and keeping this secret from him specifically. He desperately wanted to tell Arthur every time he was with him it was the first thing that wanted to come out of his mouth, but it just never would.

“You must not tell the prince, Merlin.” Gaius’ voice was very hard and very serious. It had been that way when he had told him that he shouldn’t tell Morgana about her own magic. He had broken that one and it had worked out well, but this time he really didn’t think he could.

“I know, Gaius. I wouldn’t tell him and make him pick between me and his father anyway. That wouldn’t be fair. So can we skip the lecture tonight? Someone is out there trying to plot a way to kill Arthur, but we do know that he has at least one spy inside Camelot. They knew that we were going hunting and when. So someone is leaking information to this man who is then using it to plan an attempt on his life. With that kind of inside information at some point they might be successful.” Merlin gave his own speech this time, completely cutting off Gaius’ usual tirade about Merlin’s magic.

“You’re right Merlin. That is something to worry about. If we can’t trust the people who are in Camelot permanently for our own safety then we’ll have to be overly careful who we say things to from now on. We can’t let certain details fall into the wrong hands anymore.” Gaius sat down hard as he finished speaking.

“I know. I’m really worried about this. I know that it’s none of the guys really close to Arthur. I would trust Leon, Lancelot, Gwaine, Percival, and Elyan with my life.” Merlin spoke quickly. He had been running this over in his head since it had happened.

“But would you trust them with Arthur’s life, Merlin?” Gaius asked him.

Merlin actually took the time to think it over even though he wanted to automatically answer with the affirmative. After a few moments he still came to the same conclusion, “yes, I would. However, I can’t say the same for the rest of the knights.”

 “You’ll have to keep them close. When Arthur is out practicing make sure he is surrounded by those closest to him. Make sure the quests and hunting trips are all with just those men. That way if anything does go wrong at least you can count on the ones he has with him. Go get some rest, Merlin. You look ready to pass out.” Gaius ordered him.

Merlin went. He wasn’t really in the position to argue. He was basically asleep standing up. He was going be gone as soon as he hit the bed. Merlin only slept for about a grand total of three restless hours before Gaius’ doors banging open woke him up.

“Lady Morgana! What’s wrong? Are you all right? Are you ill?” Gaius said quickly, but softly upon her entering.

“I’m fine Gaius. I heard that Arthur was back though. That they had been attacked. I was quite sure that I could get a lot more information out of Merlin than I could get out of Arthur. Since they all came back alive I’m guessing Merlin had a hand in it and can tell me a lot more than any of those idiots could.” Morgana sounded absolutely boiling.

Merlin knew that if he didn’t get out of bed and go out there that she would just come in to his room and bombard him. It was clearly in his best interest to force his legs to move and make himself get dressed and go out there. He stumbled around the room and barely managed to pull his shirt over his head before Morgana had burst in.

“Oh! Merlin, good! You are awake.” Morgana spoke. She looked as though she had barely slept either. Though that meant very little, she always looked gorgeous. “I was just coming to talk to you about what happened on the hunting trip.”

“Yeah, I heard you come in. Let’s go sit down?” Merlin’s voice was a croak. Clearly only a few hours of sleep after a hard night didn’t agree with him too much after having a nice break from it all.

They made their way back out into the main room. Gaius was still standing in the middle of the room as though he had wanted to stop Morgana from barging into Merlin’s quarters, but not knowing quite how to do so. He sat down with the two sorcerers and listened closely as once again Merlin recounted the events of the night.

After Merlin was done Gaius gave him a small plate of food so he wasn’t completely starving. Merlin thanked his mentor by shoveling the food into his mouth rapidly. Gaius just chuckled, he knew that the sentiment was there, Merlin showed it more often than said it.

Morgana had just sat there while Merlin had eaten. She had studied him and the room around her occasionally tapping her fingers on the table as she was thinking. “So, is there some kind of spell that we could do that would make this spy tell the truth about it?” She clearly wasn’t able to hold back her thoughts any longer. Merlin still had a couple of bites of food left on his plate, but he stopped eating to answer her question.

“No, there are basic truth spell, but those are really broad ones. Those would make everyone in Camelot start spewing the truth to every question that was asked. Including the both of us. Which would be deadly for us if someone were to ask if either of us could do magic. Then of course we could put a very specific truth spell on an object, but that would only be useful if we knew who the person was. The spelled object only works on the person who it’s touching.” Merlin explained all of this without having to look at Gaius for an answer only because he had already looked into it before. It would have solved quite a few of his previous problems if it would have been possible.

“Hmm. Right. I see the problems.” Morgana went back to thinking and occasionally tapping her fingernails.

Merlin managed to finish the last bites of his food while she was still thinking. He even managed to down a full glass of water after he polished off the food. “I wish it was as simple as a truth spell. It was someone close enough to know that Arthur and the knights were going out hunting. We’re all going to have to be really careful and a lot more watchful about who we talk to and who is around when we talk.”

“Is there really nothing else we can do? We have all of this power. All of this ability.” Morgana’s face had a flush to it. She was clearly rallying up for an impassioned speech.

“We can’t really do any magic to cut off their plans since we don’t know what they are. I know it seems a bit hopeless and pointless, but we can just work on staying alert. From the other side of things it’s all about launching magical attacks, but from our side it’s more about stopping them. Which of course it’s a bit hard to do until they actually do something.” The annoyance was even evident in Merlin’s voice at that one.

“How have you managed to do this without going insane? Seriously. I already want to search through that book of yours and find some kind of spell and finish this now. How do you just sit and wait around for things?” Her face kept getting more and more flushed and her nails tapped out a staccato rhythm on the table.

“I know. It really does feel pointless. I’ve more than once jumped before I’ve thought it through and tried acting before I had any reason to. It actually more often than not messed things up worse than ever. Remember when Gwen’s dad got sick and then was cured and Gwen was charged with sorcery? I really did cure him. It was stupid and reckless. I don’t regret it, but it could have gotten her killed. If it had, then I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.” His face fell into a solemn mask. It had been hard to watch Gwen be chained up.

Morgana’s face twisted up into something a lot more serious and grim. She had been one of the strongest and loudest people who rallied against Gwen’s imprisonment when that had happened. When Merlin had told Morgana about her own magic and his he had also told her about his doings in Camelot. So she knew what he had done and how he had been saving Arthur and the people of Camelot, but that he had also been bumbling around it sometimes as well.

“Right. That’s true. We can’t just rush headlong into this. We need a solid plan. An actual course of action. Plus, now that both Lancelot and Gwaine know about your magic I can tell them about mine and they can both help us with all of this. It’ll be easier to keep an eye on Arthur with two of his closest knights on our side.” She stood up and her gown swept around her feet. She was always graceful, it was a wonder that no one had ever connected her to a royal lineage earlier.

“So, I guess for the time being we’ll just have to be extra cautious of who is around. We know who we trust so outside of that we should just work based off suspicion. I think that would be the safest thing anyway.” Merlin looked at their two thoughtful faces.

“I think you’re right, Merlin.” Morgana’s voice cut the silence. “Though, I do think it would be easier to do if Arthur knew about us.”

Merlin sat there for a moment completely torn. He wanted to take the rope that Morgana had just thrown him. She was offering the same risk he would be. It was at the very least similar anyways. Hers was a very new secret. His was a lie he had been telling since the moment they had met.

Morgana would possibly have to deal with the issue of having to explain her lineage to Arthur or of having to deal how she found out about her magic in the first place. If Merlin didn’t agree with her to tell him she would never out him to Arthur. Though if he didn’t that meant that Morgana wouldn’t be able to tell Arthur the story of how she came to find out about her own magic and how Merlin was training her.

“I want to Morgana. I want to tell him more than anything. You have to know that. I just can’t worry about him hating me and sending me away right now when there is someone out there plotting to kill him. If he does end up sending me away then he could possibly be caught without someone with magic there to protect him.” Merlin’s voice had a note of desperation to it that he hadn’t even known it could possess. He truly did want to tell Arthur about his magic. However, he wished that he could know how the man would react.

Morgana gave him a small sad smile. “You’re right. We can’t risk that. If we take away that advantage then he would be very vulnerable. We’ll have to handle this threat first and then I’ll deal with the idea of telling him about my magic.”

“How about I make you a deal? We all make it out of this alive and I’ll even think about telling him with you?” Almost as soon as the words left Merlin’s mouth he regretted them. The smile that was on Morgana’s face after he spoke was dangerous.

“Now that is something I can work with, Merlin. I should probably be going. I’m sure the ladies of the court are just dying of curiosity as to where I am.” She smiled a sunny smile at both of them that made Merlin worry even more about promising to tell Arthur about his magic with her as she left the room.

Merlin and Gaius both sat there for a few moments in silence after she left. “Merlin, you shouldn’t have done that. Made that kind of a promise.” Gaius finally spoke.

“I know. I didn’t think about it. I honestly didn’t think she would take me seriously, but clearly she did.” Merlin mumbled. He got up and washed off his plate. He paced around the room, not really knowing what to do with himself.

“All right, Merlin. No reason to worry about it now. We need to focus on one problem at a time. As it stands, this threat is much more current and a larger issue than deciding whether or not to tell him about your magic.” His voice was soft and calming. Merlin was like a son to him. He never liked to see the boy in such a worked up state. Gaius wished he could make things easier for the young man.

Merlin stayed with Gaius as he worked for the next couple of hours until he got restless. Then he went out to find some of the knights. He needed to talk to someone else about this. See if anyone else had come up with any ideas, or remembered anyone suspicious hanging around, or anyone asking too many questions about Arthur.

No one had been overly curious about Arthur’s activities towards Merlin. As Arthur’s manservant he would have been the best source of the information. So, it would have to be someone very close to them. Someone that knows that Merlin and Arthur are more than just Prince and manservant and that they actually talk to one another. If it was someone who was basically a stranger then they would have just cozied up to Merlin for the information.

Merlin had finally made it down to the courtyard and was just wandering around hoping to find at least one of the knights awake and not still stashed away. He was in luck when he saw Lancelot, Leon, and Gwaine walking down the path. Merlin had to jog a bit to catch up to them, but once he did they both greeted him happily.

“Hello, Merlin. How are feeling after last night?” Leon asked him with a kind look.

“Oh, I’m fine! You lot did all the hard work. How are the three of you?” After so many casual comments like that he had grown so accustomed to just throwing off his own abilities and his own actions.

Gwaine opened his mouth as though he was about to completely contradict what Merlin had just said when Lancelot elbowed him in the side. Merlin saw it as it happened and took it all in. Gwaine must have gotten up early and ambushed Lancelot about Merlin and his magic. Lancelot was clearly making sure Gwaine watched his mouth which Merlin very much appreciated.

“Well we would be a lot better if his highness wasn’t still sleeping and we could actually talk about how to go about figuring all this out.” Gwaine ended up saying instead of whatever he had originally intended.

Merlin made sure to put some gratefulness into the smile that he flashed at Gwaine and Lancelot, they would both get what it was for. “Arthur won’t be up for a while. And when he does wake up, I’m sure to be in trouble for something. Probably not being there with breakfast even though it’ll be two in the afternoon or something.” He gave an exaggerated eye roll that set them all off laughing. He really was the only one who could get away with treating Arthur that way.

“We were talking about the idea of the spy here though. Any thoughts on that?” Lancelot asked. “Since they had to know we were going hunting we narrowed it down to a servant, knight, or someone in the town really. So that kind of leaves well, everyone.”

The three knights shifted awkwardly they hated coming up with nothing like that. It felt like a pointless conversation, a clue to nowhere. “I was actually thinking about that on the way down here. It has to be someone that is actually close. Not a stranger to the town or a stranger to our dynamics. So someone actually fairly close to us. Otherwise that person would have just tried to just get information about Arthur’s schedule from me. I’m his manservant and anywhere else or with anyone else that would mean just that. With me and Arthur though we actually talk. So, this person knows that wouldn’t have worked.”

The three of them stood there and stared at him for a moment and then Leon just cursed once and rubbed his hand over his chin. “Okay, So what else do they know and how long have they been spying are some pretty huge questions we need to start asking now as well, huh?” Leon asked after he pulled himself back together.

“Yeah, we do. We need to get everyone together that we are sure that we trust and go from there. Start testing and then eliminating people off of that. And then hopefully sooner rather than later we’ll find out who it is and then who is behind all this before something gets out of hand.” Merlin spoke again. It felt weird taking a more active role in talking to people about his plans. This was one of the few times he’s had to actually talk about the danger before it happened and had people to talk about it with. It was going to be hard to keep on letting people pretend he was an idiot.

 

Arthur woke up with a heady groan. His skin was flush and heated and he kicked his blankets to the side. His dream had been more vivid than the first one. It had been so real. Merlin had been there, so amazing and perfect, right in front of him.

The Merlin from the night before had inspired it. He had looked so absolutely gorgeous lit by the fire and the moon as he threw Arthur a sword in the middle of a battle, screaming out his name. God, he had been battling off two attackers and he had still taken the time to admire the man. It had been impossible not to notice him. Then not a minute later Merlin was throwing a sword to Gwaine as well and a sudden flare of jealousy had glowed in him and that wasn’t even fair. He was supposed to have gotten over that.

Later, Merlin had surprised him again, talking to that man. He had been so caring and amazing and he had been exactly the same as he always was, but watching it from the outside was such a different experience. It allowed him to see Merlin differently and it just made him want him more. The entire ride back to Camelot there had been a deep gut feeling in Arthur that this wasn’t going to go away. He hadn’t even gotten that type of feeling for Gwen.

This time when Arthur woke up moaning and thinking of Merlin he didn’t stop himself as his hands snaked down his body. He let his hands touch himself lightly at first, just to bring back the bright spots of arousal. He focused his mind on the thought of the Merlin in his dream. In this one Merlin had been on his knees, purely out of his own choice to torture Arthur, he was looking up with mischief in his eyes. Then he slowly, Arthur growled, the realness of the imagined scene was intense, licked his lips. Merlin laughed at Arthur’s response and before Arthur could say anything in response he swallowed Arthur’s cock as far as he could.

Arthur tightened his fist around himself as the Merlin in his mind did that. It felt so amazing and so real. He was leaking precum already. Arthur let himself get lost in the fantasy his hand moving faster and faster. When he reached the highest point of his pleasure the fantasy took on a life on its own. Merlin licked over the slit on the head of Arthur’s cock causing Arthur to moan loudly. Then Merlin pulled back, ran his hands up Arthur’s thighs and locked his fingers around his hips. “Oh, God, Arthur. Come for me.”

Merlin went back to it after that. He had Arthur’s dick in his mouth and his hand around the part of him that wouldn’t fit. He moaned and swallowed around Arthur and that did in the prince. He came down the hot throat of his manservant with a muffled shout of, “Merlin!”

Arthur opened his eyes to his empty room with one hand around his softening dick and the other clutching tight at his sheets. He was breathing hard with that fantasy still burned in the back of his mind. It wasn’t going to go anywhere for a long time. He couldn’t deny it anymore. He couldn’t even try to. He wanted Merlin. He wanted him in a desperate kind of way that made him all but lose his mind.

After what felt like hours Arthur finally made it out of bed and got dressed. He needed to figure this out. He needed to do something and get some advice about all of this. Who could he go to? Not Gwen. She and Merlin were too close and Arthur had once had something with her. Not any of the knights, they were all worried about the attack and they were all friends with Merlin as well.

Oh, God, he was going to have to go to Morgana.

He took as long as he possibly could avoiding leaving his room before finally making his way to Morgana’s quarters. It had been a solid three hours before he made his way there and knocked on her door.

“Come in!” Morgana called from inside the room. Arthur walked in to see Gwen there with Morgana and a few of the minor ladies of the court.

When Morgana saw that it was Arthur she quickly dismissed the other ladies and then it was only Morgana and Gwen in the room with him. “Thank God you showed up! I was just about to jump out the window out of boredom anyway. How are you? I heard about the attack on the hunting trip. Heard you all made it back alive though so it couldn’t have been too bad.”

Arthur gave a halfhearted laugh, but gave her an answer to her question. “I’m fine, and so are all of the others. Any injuries are all completely minor and superficial. Though we might have someone who is spying for information so we should all be careful what we say and to whom we say it.”

“Oh! Well that’s not good at all!” Gwen burst out without meaning to. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re all right, Gwen. That’s really not good at all, Arthur. Any idea who it could be?” Morgana asked him.

“We really don’t know. Someone close though. They’d have to know us all really well. Our habits and how to get to us and when.” Arthur explained to them only what he had been able to puzzle out himself.

“Gwen would you mind going to get Arthur and I some sandwiches or something from the kitchens? I don’t think he’s eaten yet today.” Morgana spoke to Gwen with a quiet laugh in her voice.

“Of course not.” Gwen said with a smile before leaving.

“So, what’s wrong?” Morgana asked as soon as she was gone.

“How do you know something’s wrong?” His voice barely avoided cracking when he spoke.

“Well, for one you came here first thing before even eating something. Two, you barely laughed at the way I shooed off the ladies I was bored to death of. Three, you’ve been avoiding eye contact since you got here. So, seriously Arthur what is it? What’s wrong?” It couldn’t be anything too bad. If it had been anything relating to the attack he would have gone to Uther, not her, right?

“Well a few days ago I had this dream and it was really weird and it was something that I have never in my entire life dreamed about before. It was weird, really weird. It completely freaked me out to the point that I – “

“Wait!” Morgana interrupted him. “A long time ago I came to you about my dreams and you laughed in my face about them. Now you’re coming to me about dreams?”  

“Er… Yes?” Arthur asked.

Her eyes were tiny slits staring him down. “Just checking. Carry on.”

“So this dream. It threw me off. Everything was off. Completely off. My entire day was wrong. Then a few days ago I found out something about someone and it kind of freaked me out. I mean they didn’t really mean for me to find out. And no one really knows this about that person. So it’s like a secret, but I don’t care or anything. It’s just that it changes the way I view them. So now it’s all different again. And life is all a mess right now.” Arthur knew he was probably making absolutely no sense right now.

“Okay. I feel like I need to ask you to start over.” Morgana was starting to get nervous though. Arthur was talking about a big secret that he found out. What did he know? “You are being extremely vague. I feel like I’m going to need some more words in there to actually understand anything.”

“All right. So, the dream came first.” Arthur started before he was interrupted again.

“So, they are connected?” Morgana burst in.

“Yeah, they are…” Arthur’s response was slow, hesitant.

“Oh, okay. They’re about the same person then? Your dreams were about a person?” Morgana was always quick with her mind, while Arthur was deadly with a sword her mind was her weapon. Arthur gave himself away with the bright red color that his cheeks turned. “Come on Arthur this is so not the first time you’ve had a dream about someone.”

“Yeah, well, this wasn’t my usual kind of dream. I may have common dreams about people, but before this one they’ve always been women.” Arthur said this as casually as possible. It seemed to have worked because it took a few moments for Morgana to realize what he said.

“Oh, Oh! Arthur! Wait, you had a dream about a guy? Seriously? Who was it?” Morgana was all gleaming smiles now.

Arthur groaned. “Morgana… Stay on task here…”

“Right, yes, okay. So you had a dream about a man. I’m guessing a very sexual dream or else you wouldn’t be in this crisis like state. This is definitely new for you. Before this I would have said you would be one of the straightest men in Camelot.” Morgana was leaning forward now. She was clearly interested in this conversation now.

“Yeah, well you’ve basically got that one down then. Well that messed me up because clearly I don’t have a chance with him.” Arthur said flatly.

“Why not?” Morgana flat out demanded.

“Well you mean besides the obvious? One being as the heir to the throne I’m basically obligated to marry for a political alliance and make a baby to carry on the line. Because I don’t exactly have any siblings to have babies to carry on the line without my own heir right?” Arthur really did hate that bit. It was probably the most ridiculous thing it felt archaic. “So even leaving out that and the fact that my father would probably kill me, I was fairly certain that this guy wasn’t gay, that he wasn’t into me at all. Actually I was sure that he had had a thing for Gwen at a time or you.”

“Okay, that makes sense. That would mess anyone up. A dream about someone who could be attainable is one thing, but someone who is so completely out of reach is almost torture. Wait, you said ‘you were fairly sure he wasn’t gay’. Do you know differently now?” Morgana had that piercing gaze staring pointedly back on him now.

“Yeah that’s how the second part ties in. I learned a few days ago that someone is gay that I previously thought to be straight. And it messed with me just as much. The dreams are back in a big way and I can’t just ignore them anymore because the biggest reason to ignore them is gone.” Arthur ran his hand through his hair he really wasn’t sure what to do with all of this. “So, what should I do?”

“Well that kind of depends on who it is?” Morgana purred at him.

He knew she just wanted to know who it was that he was dreaming about and freaking out over. He knew that she just wanted to know so that she could hold it over him, but he honestly couldn’t muster up the energy to figure out how to avoid telling her. She wouldn’t offer him advice until after he told her and he desperately needed advice. “Merlin… It’s Merlin.”

“Oh… wow. This is just too good. It’s precious.” The smile she wore was actual happiness or else Arthur would have been pissed off at her comments.

“So, what should I do?” Arthur asked again.

“I would say tell him how you feel, but you are an idiot and a stubborn one at that so that route would never do. The next option would be to just walk up and kiss him, but that has way too many options for open dismissal so it’s very risky, so that one is out. Also this is Merlin, so we have to take that into account. Hmmm… How about you just start off by flirting with him. Be really really subtle. Don’t be overly flirty like you would with any of the court women god that would be horrible. He would think you had gone mad.” Morgana was having way too much fun with this. She was almost having to hold in her laughter.

“How do you mean? My flirting is not over the top!” He was offended! He always did well with women. They always fell over themselves to be with him.

“Yes, it is. Especially for someone like Merlin. He isn’t exactly some frilly, giggling, whiny, attention hogging, court girl. This is Merlin. He is so completely different from who you are used to flirting with.” She had a single eyebrow raised and was giving him a pointed look.

“All right. Point taken. How should I go about flirting with someone like Merlin then? How do I be subtle?” Arthur felt pathetic asking, but he did want to try. Merlin felt amazing in his dreams he wanted to know what he felt like in reality.

“Well for one don’t expect him to fall over you because you’re a prince. He doesn’t do that as your friend he won’t do that when you try to flirt either. Another thing, small touches, those are infuriatingly good for flirting. Touch his hands, his fingers, his arms, his cheeks, his shoulders, his collarbones, lightly and not for long, but as often as you can without being weird or creepy. Talk to him alone often, smile a lot, stand close to him, eye contact is very important, touch his hair, lick your lips when you’re looking at him, bit your lips as well. All those little things, they add up to a lot.” Morgana did speak from experience girls always had to play subtle when they flirted.

Arthur had been nodding along as though paying close attention the entire time she had been talking. He had been imagining doing those things to Merlin. “I can try. I don’t know if that’ll be possible though. He’s gay. He hasn’t ever made a move or even a passing glace it seems. Apparently though he kissed Gwaine. So maybe I’m just not his type.”

“Or maybe he thought you were completely straight like the rest of Camelot did. Myself included.” Her lightning quick response did help Arthur’s mood a bit.           

“You might as well try. If he doesn’t respond to it then it is all subtle enough that it can be explained away. Even you can’t mess this up, Arthur. Every visiting noble, man and woman, wants you in their bed. They have flirted with you over and over, regardless of whether or not you wanted them, you had to have noticed their efforts. Draw on that, some of them were actually quite good at it all.” Morgana was back to being a sarcastic pain in Arthur’s ass so clearly things were getting back to normal.

“What if he just doesn’t get it? If he’s just oblivious to is?” Arthur sounded nervous. He knew he did. He never sounded nervous, not even when he was facing down dragons or standing up to his father.

“He will, this is you Arthur. The relationship you two have is a close one, but it’s never been a flirty one or an overly tactile one, not like this. He’ll get it. He won’t be able to miss it. And when he does he’ll blush and stammer and he’ll took away and he won’t be able to meet your eyes and he’ll probably run away at first. After then then he’ll start to reciprocate if he likes you back. You have allow for his awkwardness at first, this is Merlin after all.” Morgana was still smiling that evil little smile at him, it really was starting to worry him.

“Do you really think I have a shot? Do you think it’s worth it?” Arthur asked Morgana softly.

“Arthur, anything that makes you happy is worth it. Stop thinking about the stupid rules and the stupid traditions. You’ve already broken them for the knights and that turned out to be one of the best things you could have done for this kingdom. Stop doubting yourself.” Morgana seriously had to start waking the man over his stubborn head if he couldn’t understand that he was so much better for Camelot than Uther.

Arthur smiled at her, she really was great at giving him advice. Even though she would be giving him hell for it every step of the way it was worth coming to her for this. “You’re right. It’s worth pursuing. I need to figure out what this is for me anyway. It’s been bothering me since the dream, I can’t think about anyone else.”

“Oh, watching this is going to be fun.” Morgana replied with a clap of her hands and a manic gleam in her eyes. Gwen walked in right before she said that and stopped short with a confused from on her face.

“What’s going to be fun?” Gwen was holding a tray that was overly full. It was clear that the kitchen staff had gone a bit over board when they had heard that she was bring the food for Morgana and Arthur.

“Nothing!” Arthur all but shouted out.

Morgana couldn’t hold in her laughter at that one. She was bent over laughing and close to tears. She tried to stop a few times, but each time she would look up at Arthur or Gwen and that would set her off again.

“Okay, I’m officially lost.” Gwen said before she set the tray down on Morgana’s table.

“Don’t worry about it, Gwen. Morgana’s insane.” Arthur said with a growl of accusation and annoyance in his voice.

Finally after another few minutes Morgana was able to catch her breath and calm back down. “Oh, yes. Okay this will definitely be fun. It’s fun already.” Arthur and Gwen both just stared at her and refused to comment this time around knowing she wouldn’t say anything and it might just set her off laughing again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading! :) Please review!!


	7. Counter Plotting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Knights and Merlin work on a plan to figure out a way to find out who the spy is. They know they need to find out the question is how. 
> 
> Please read, enjoy, and review! I would adore reviews! :)

The next morning was when everyone expected Michael Kirkland and his family and the families of the other men to show up to Camelot. They would be offered protection while they were here. They would be placed in the town because they were less likely to be spotted by the spy there since they had realized that it was clearly someone closer to them that a stranger in the town. This was also when they were planning on meeting up with all the people they trusted to talk about what they should be looking out for and to be careful talking about.

Arthur woke up when Merlin came into his room, he had been having another dream about his slender manservant that was slipping away the more conscious he became. He knew that he had a hard on though and so he quickly rolled onto his side to hide it from the man. Luckily, Merlin was too distracted by setting the food on the table and babbling about Michael and hoping that he was okay to notice anything. After a few very long deep breaths and some disgusting thoughts Arthur had himself under control. 

Arthur forced himself out of bed with Morgana’s tips for flirting in mind. He didn’t know if he could do this though. He had faced down armies and creatures and a dragon, but this absolutely terrified him. His clothes had already been laid out by a still talking Merlin so Arthur started to dress himself and just listened to the man talk on. 

“I know it was probably hard for him to travel such a long distance with so many people. Some of them are probably really young as well. Children, you know? Children aren’t used to travelling long distances in short amounts of time on foot. Especially with limited supplies. I hope the spy whoever it is wasn’t able to get a message to the man. That could have been terrible for them. That could mean he could have set an ambush for them. If they don’t show today should we go out looking?” At this point Merlin finally paused for a breath and turned to look around and saw an already dressed and sitting down Arthur. 

“Oh! Sorry, I was being stupid and babbling again wasn’t I?” Merlin’s face started to blush high in his cheeks like it always did when he was embarrassed. He brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. Another subconscious gesture to show that he was uncomfortable and embarrassed. 

“No, you’re fine, Merlin. I mean you might have babbling like an idiot, but I don’t mind listening to you.” That’s a good start. Well, Arthur figured it was anyway. He couldn’t take the joking out of their relationship, it was what made theirs such a solid friendship. Merlin treated him like an equal when even most royals differed to him. He smiled softly at Merlin. Not the mocking smile that usually follows a joking insult between them and not the broad ones that they always share in their friendship, this one was more intimate. 

“Huh?” Was Merlin’s inelegant response. He just kind of stood there and stared at Arthur for another moment before snapping out of it. “Oh, well um… Here’s your breakfast.” Merlin handed Arthur the tray of food that he had been shuffling around. 

Arthur would have usually just let Merlin set it down on the table but this time he moved to take hold of it from Merlin’s hands. When he grabbed the tray Arthur positioned his hand to grab just where his hands would slide across Merlin’s as Merlin released the tray to him. It was a small thing and it wasn’t even something that could be construed as flirtatious since Merlin was handing him something, but Arthur wasn’t exactly confident about this. 

Arthur started to eat some of his breakfast and Merlin stood there still looking awkward. “You’re really worried about them aren’t you?” Arthur finally spoke up. 

“Yeah, I am.” Merlin spoke and then slumped into a chair. At least Arthur talking had taken away some of that awkwardness. 

“It’s going to work out. He’s going to turn up sometime today. Don’t freak out until there is actually something to freak out over, all right? Anyway, if he doesn’t turn up today of course we’ll go out looking. We offered to protect him. I’m not going to let him get himself and possibly his wife and children killed out there. What kind of man do you take me for, Merlin?” Arthur threw in that last sentence completely as a joke. He followed it with a charming smile and then he was biting on his bottom lip. He actually wasn’t doing it intentionally even if Morgana had listed it as something to do. This was all out of nerves. 

“A man who’s going to be a really great king.” Merlin was looking at him completely open and honestly. He had said things along those lines before, but rarely had it ever been so bluntly stated. It made the way Merlin treated him mean so much more. He saw both sides and still treated him like an equal. He saw that Arthur was going to be king one day, but also that just like everyone else he was just a man. 

“Thanks.” Arthur had to stop talking and actually clear his throat, which was pretty damn embarrassing. “Thank you, Merlin. We should probably be going, yeah? Don’t want to keep everyone waiting. They’ll be wanting to talk about all of this.” 

Arthur stood up and started making his way for the door. His breakfast tray still sat there the remains were still half uneaten, he had gotten too distracted to manage to finish. Merlin was content to follow Arthur to the room where they were meeting. They had decided that since any spy would figure that all the knights on the hunting trip would be in on any kind of plan they would meet someplace else. For instance this first impromptu little meeting would be taking place in Morgana’s chambers. She hadn’t agreed to host exactly. She more or less glared at Arthur when he had asked and then said fine, just as long as he was going to try and flirt with Merlin. That was her deal. Which he had been! So technically he had kept his end of the bargain. It wasn’t his fault he sucked at this. 

They finally made it to the room, but clearly they had not been early enough. They had only knocked once when Morgana flung the door open and pulled Arthur inside by his shirt. “Control them! Now!” 

Lancelot was over in a corner talking to Gwen who was blushing prettily, which was why the others were not behaving. He would have at least tried to make an effort to calm the others down. Leon must have made the only effort that was seen, but he was alone without Lancelot and so it wasn’t very effective. Granted, neither of them were very good at it. Mostly they only ever did damage control. 

Gwaine was currently being as much of an ass as possible pulling out all of Morgana’s dresses. He was commenting on why she needed so damn many of them. Percival and Elyan were of course egging him on while throwing out ideas for matching pairs of shoes. 

“Morgana! You think I can? When Gwaine does this kind of thing he usually just goes until he burns himself out of the joke. He doesn’t even listen to me.” Arthur complained to her. 

“Oi! Gwaine, I promise you, Morgana wears it better, but if you really want to compare we can all wait while you try it on. Though I’m not sure your ego could take the hit…” Merlin called out and bit his lip as he took a cursory glance between Morgana and Gwaine. 

“Oh, fuck you, Merlin.” The man pouted. Though it did have the desired effect of getting him and the others to all calm down and gather towards the center of the room. 

“You wish.” Merlin replied quickly without even thinking about it. He may have just outted himself to even more people. Well isn’t that a good way to start the day? 

“Still evaluating that!” Gwaine called to him with a laugh. Which luckily enough made Merlin laugh as well just about everyone else in the rom. 

Morgana and Arthur were both standing there with their mouths hanging open a bit. No one had ever been able to reign Gwaine in so quickly. For Merlin it had been as easy as a single comment. A snap of his fingers and Gwaine was done with his joke. As simple as that for Merlin. Morgana turned to Arthur and gave him a single command with no room for negotiation. “Keep him.” 

“Yeah, I want to. I plan to, if he lets me.” Arthur whispered to her. He was unaccustomed to wanting something that he wasn’t sure he was allowed to have. Something he wasn’t sure he could even have a taste of. 

“Yes, well, go win him over then. Have you been flirting? That was the stipulation for having this here.” Morgana said with a single raised eyebrow. 

“I’m trying. I’m not all that good at it.” He was talking to Morgana, but he was looking at Merlin while he was chatting with Gwen and Lancelot. 

“Try harder after the damn meeting then! We’re all here so we can’t delay it so you can attempt to flirt right now without being obvious about it.” Morgana rolled her eyes at him. 

Arthur shook his head and chuckled at her. “Okay guys! So, everyone knows why we’re here, right? We’ve got an issue in Camelot. There’s someone here who is taking information that they learn here and giving it to someone with money and power outside of here and then they are using it to try and do damage with it.”

So far he had everyone’s attention which was good. Hopefully things could continue going well and this would be a simple and quick meeting. Arthur continued to explain things. “So far there has only been one attack from this man that we know of. It was an ambush on our hunting party. Michael Kirkland is the survivor of the party hired to do the job. He had no idea what he was hired to do. He is bringing his family, along with those of the men killed here to Camelot, we plan to give them protection in the town. That’s where the spy is the least likely to be. We figure this because it has to be someone close. Merlin can explain that bit since he figured it out.” 

Merlin looked up at him, startled, then he smiled and nodded and started to speak. “Yeah, so basically the way most servant type relationships work would be strictly business. Not exactly how mine is with Arthur or how Gwen’s is with Morgana. Ours are different in that we actually talk to each other. So if some creepy guy came up to me and started randomly asking what Arthur’s schedule was I’d probably mention it. So, it has to be someone who would know that I wouldn’t be the easiest way to access that information. Even though in any other instance I would be.” 

After Merlin finished with his explanation Arthur picked it back up. “So, that leaves us with all of the servants, the knights, and the townspeople who are aware of court life because not all of them are. I would say I want at least two of us to take each section every day and to work through the people. See who is there consistently and who isn’t. See who knows what goes on and who doesn’t. See who cares and who doesn’t. Those kinds of things. Be careful of what you say of course. I would say that once we have some suspects we can leak one at a time some fake information and see which one pans out. Anything else to add? Anyone?” 

No one spoke again they all just sat there with determined looks on their faces. They seemed ready to face whatever this was with him so he was ready to face this with them. “All right, then I guess that’s it. Oh, no need to tell my father about this until we actually have something to tell him. He doesn’t like working off rumors.”

They all got up, but surprisingly didn’t leave. This time Morgana really did push Arthur across the room towards Merlin who was once again standing with Gwen and Lancelot. Morgana stayed with Gwaine, which must be killing her to do and she must want to rip her hair out, which made Arthur feel only a tiny bit better. 

“Hey!” Merlin greeted him happily. This actually made Arthur feel a lot better. “Gwen and I were just talking we figured since the first day would probably be a bit weird already that it would make the most sense to go with what is natural. So Gwen and I can cover the servants, some of you can cover the knights and whoever goes into town the most can cover the towns people. I would probably go with Elyan and Lancelot for the town though at a guess.” 

As Merlin had been babbling again going aver what he had just been talking about minutes before with Lancelot and Gwen, the two moved a few feet away to continue their own conversation. They stayed close enough to reenter the conversation if needed though. 

Arthur clearly hadn’t been paying much attention because while Merlin had been talking Arthur had moved closer to the man. Now there was less than a foot of space between them. Well, it’s now or never then. Might as well go for it. “Your guess is much better than mine, Merlin. You’re brilliant.” Arthur brought up his right hand and traced his first two fingers over the heat that was high in Merlin’s cheeks. 

Merlin’s lips parted on a gasp. God, Arthur wanted so desperately to lean down and to capture them with his own, but he didn’t know if the gasp meant yes or no yet. His fingertips slid away from Merlin’s face and then went down to his hand and skated across his fingers for a few moments. Merlin’s breathing had clearly sped up. Was that a good thing? Or was he pissed off at Arthur? 

“Um… I… Umm…” Merlin was completely inarticulate. Arthur had never touched him like that before. He had never even come close to that before. He didn’t know what to do. This was basically his ideal. His perfect person. His fantasy come to life. It was all too perfect. There must be something wrong here. Oh, god… he was under some kind of spell, wasn’t he? Merlin’s face fell. He knew it had. He had to get out of here. He ran for the door. 

Arthur watched Merlin’s face go through the odd facial expressions. Then it went kind of expressionless and then he just ran for it. Merlin made it out the door and then Morgana tore off after him. Everyone kind of looked like they wanted to take off after him actually. Oh, god, he had really fucked this up hadn’t he? He hadn’t even done much. He had only tried to flirt! Badly! He might add.

 

Morgana had ran out into the hall mere seconds after Merlin, but of course he wasn’t in heels so he does travel faster. She had to resort to yelling to get the man to stop and wait for her to catch up. 

“Merlin, why did you run out of there?” Morgana asked between panting breaths of air. 

“Didn’t you see that? The way he touched me? That isn’t like usual. He has to be under some kind of spell or something. He doesn’t like me like that.” Merlin closed his eyes as he spoke, but then all he could picture was Arthur looking down at him so he snapped his eyes back open. 

“No! Merlin, no. He is not under some kind of spell. I promise you he isn’t.” She spoke quickly and reassuringly. 

“How can you possibly know that?” Merlin asked her. Waiting for the inevitable no that she can’t. 

“I just do! He talked to me about wanting to flirt with someone and not knowing how to. I gave him tips on how to do subtle things.” She spoke with such calm certainty that Merlin wanted to believe her. He really did. 

“That could mean anything Morgana. Plus, the person that he really wanted to flirt with could have been the one who had enchanted him.” Merlin just wasn’t able to take that kind of chance. 

Merlin started to turn around and continue walking toward Gaius’ chambers to dig up that old research he had done on love and lust enchantments before Morgana stopped him. “Okay! Okay, fine. He said it was you. He said it was you that he wanted to flirt with. He said it was you that he has a thing for, that he wants. He wants you Merlin. He likes you, a lot.” 

“What?” Merlin just stared at her. 

“You heard every single word I said. You are an amazingly powerful sorcerer. You deserve the love of a king. So go back into that room and get over the no one can like me thing. Everyone in that room loves you, Merlin! They are probably ripping Arthur to shreds right now actually.” 

“Do I look like I might get sick? Because I feel like it…” Merlin mumbled as they started walking back. 

“Only a bit. What’s wrong?” Morgana asked him with concern laced in her voice. 

“I’ve liked him for so long. I don’t know if I can do this.” His breathing was starting to speed up. He felt a bit like he was going to start hyperventilating. 

“Yes, you can! Clearly he likes you as well if he was flirting. So go in there and flirt back. Come on, Merlin. After everything, all of the loss and the life saving and the sacrifice, you deserve happiness. I know that you’re going to want to say no to all of this because of the magic thing, because you still haven’t told him. He really likes you though. It would hurt him more if you turned him down.” Morgana had started her speech with a comforting tone, but ended it with a fierce glare at Merlin. 

“Wait, are you giving me the ‘don’t hurt him’ speech right now?” He almost cracked up at the idea. 

“As his sister I feel inclined to be the one to do so. Also because all of the knights and Gwen are probably in there doing the exact same to Arthur about you. So I think I’ll be the only one to give the speech to you.” Morgana gave a chuckle. She imagined the scene that was probably playing out in her room right now. She was missing some fantastic drama. 

“Well, thank you. I have absolutely no plans to ever hurt Arthur. You know that. Do you really think so though? That turning him down would be worse than finding out about my magic later?” His hands were twisting together as a nervous habit. He couldn’t help it at all. 

“I honestly do Merlin. I wouldn’t lead you wrong about this. I would tell you if I thought differently, I promise. Now, let’s head back to my room. You are coming.” She grabbed him by the shoulder to propel him down the hall.

 

“What the fuck, Arthur?!”Gwaine burst out as soon as Merlin and Morgana had both rushed out of the room. 

Arthur had leant back against the wall with his head hanging down, but at that it snapped up. “What?” 

“Why were you flirting with him?” Gwaine’s face was beet red and he looked absolutely livid. 

“Why is it any of your business?” Arthur replied. It really wasn’t and he didn’t want to be questioned about it right now. But he didn’t want to leave in case Morgana managed to stop Merlin and was talking to him outside the room. 

“Well it’s fucked up.” The knight bit out. The man was clearly still seething mad. 

“So it’s fucked up for me to flirt now? That’s a bit hypocritical.” Arthur scoffed and crossed his arms. 

“Well I’ve never flirted with a friend when I didn’t mean it. Especially knowing they had a thing for me.” Gwaine was now staring daggers at him, but everyone else in the room had stopped looking at Arthur to look at Gwaine. 

“Who says I don’t mean it?” Arthur responded without thinking. All the gazes switched back to Arthur again. He was still so caught up that it took him a solid minute for his brain to register the second half of what Gwaine said and then he was standing straight up. “Wait! He has a thing for me?” 

“So you are serious? You aren’t just fucking with him because you found out he was gay or something? You are actually intentionally flirting with him?” Gwaine asked the man standing in front of him now a lot less dejected than previously. 

“Of course I’m intentionally flirting with him. I’m not so much of an ass to do something like that. Did you really think that I would? This is Merlin we’re talking about. He’s my best friend. I wouldn’t exactly risk that for some stupid joke.” When Arthur finished talking everyone in the room took a collecting breath of relief and sort of became more relaxed. Arthur of course noticed this. 

“You all thought that! You can’t be serious? Not one of you gave me any credit?” Arthur was back to being put out again this time though it was laced with pissed off rather than dejected. 

“Well, you do come off as being rather straight. You haven’t ever had any leanings towards a man before, so we’re all just a bit taken aback by it.” That was Lancelot, trying to put it in the nicest terms possible. 

“As always, Merlin seems to be my exception to the rule.” Arthur pursed his lips after he said it. They were all still just standing there and looking at him. It felt a lot like an interrogation. 

“Aww! That is so sweet.” Gwen burst out. She covered her mouth like she hadn’t meant to say it, but by then it was already out there and the damage was done. 

“It is rather sweet Arthur.” Elyan commented. 

“Yes, all right. Shut up. If you are just going to make jokes shut it. Considering the way he ran out of here there isn’t much to make jokes over. Today was pretty much my first attempt at flirting with him, clearly it didn’t go so well.” Arthur closed his eyes and took a breath. When he opened them back up at least the men looked suitably chastened. 

“Look, he’ll come back after Morgana’s talked to him. You know he freaks out over things.” Gwaine said. Which triggered Arthur’s memory of Morgana saying that he would have to let Merlin be awkward about things for a bit. 

“Yeah, maybe he will.” Arthur mumbled. There was a small hope that he would anyway. 

“He will. Look, just don’t hurt him. If you do then I’ll have to kill you and it really won’t look good for a knight of Camelot to kill the future king of Camelot. So, it would just be best for all of us if you don’t, okay?” Gwaine said it in a half joking way, but he was absolutely serious. Merlin was special and he deserved happiness and Arthur had better not fuck up. 

“I’m getting that speech?” Arthur asked, a bit dumbfounded. 

When all of his knights and Gwen nodded in response Arthur burst out laughing. “Oh, this is kind of priceless. I’m getting the speech from all of my knights and Gwen. Don’t worry I have no plans to ever hurt him. That’s the last thing I ever want to do.” 

“Hmm. And what do you want to do?” Gwaine asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows and a chuckle. 

“Gwaine!” Leon and Lancelot both yelled out. Of course it didn’t stop the man at all. 

“Seriously though, Arthur, you’ve never been with a guy before. You know that will actually mean kissing a man and more right? Do you want to kiss Merlin?” Gwaine was still being really persistent. Arthur knew he was never going to get the man to stop. Might as well just answer him. 

Arthur let his head fall back against the wall once again before he answered. It stopped the images that were flashing in his head. “God, yes.” Apparently though it couldn’t stop desperation from leaking into his answer. 

A small noise came from the door way and everyone’s heads snapped over there. Merlin and Morgana were both standing there and they seemed to have heard at least the last bit of the conversation going by their facial expressions. Morgana was smiling like she had won a prize and Merlin was flushed, his eyes manic. 

Arthur cleared his throat about three times before he managed to speak. “How long have you two been standing there?” 

Morgana’s smile widened even further. “Oh, long enough I’d say.” She glanced toward Merlin whose breathing was still fast. His blush was a deep red in his cheeks and was travelling down his neck. Arthur was desperate to follow it and see how far it went. 

“Right, okay then.” Arthur decided that standing there and being in front of an audience was doing absolutely nothing for either of them. He took a decisive action, finally.

Arthur moved to the door and grabbed Merlin’s hand lacing their fingers together. “Come on.” 

Merlin looked up at Arthur and then just nodded an okay before following after him. They went back to Arthur’s room. It was easiest, private, and they wouldn’t be interrupted while they talked. 

When they got there Arthur really didn’t want to let go of Merlin’s hand. It felt comfortable holding it. It felt right and perfect, like they were supposed to do this. He did though, he let go, because he wasn’t sure about what Merlin wants in all of this. He wasn’t going to do anything that Merlin doesn’t want even something as small as hand holding. 

Merlin felt the loss of Arthur’s warm hand as soon as he took it back. He moved back a few steps and stood standing against the wall. Arthur was in the middle of the room about ten paces away from him. A lot more space than was usual for them even when they pissed each other off. 

“So, I don’t really know where to start.” Arthur mumbled. He started pacing. He was so unsure. He was never this unsure. 

“Maybe with when you decided you weren’t straight…?” Merlin half asked half supplied. 

“Okay, yeah. The beginning. So I had a dream about you. And it got me thinking about how we are always together and I haven’t even been remotely interested in any of the visiting princesses in the past year at least. Since Gwen I think. That was the last time I had any interest in a girl. Then there was nothing and I just hung out with you.” Arthur had his fingers crossed that Merlin wouldn’t ask what he would probably ask. 

“You had a dream about me? When? What about?” And there it was. The questions Arthur was going to be really embarrassed answering. 

“Yeah. A few nights ago and every night since basically. Always, uh, sexual. The first was the night before the feast when I woke up and then was already dressed and then was in a bad mood. It was because I was freaking out. It made me think about things. I’m pretty sure I’ve felt like this for a long time. I just didn’t see it.” Arthur could feel the heat on his face. He knew he was flushed a bright red. 

“Really?” Was all that came out of Merlin’s mouth. Then Merlin went and licked his lips and suddenly Arthur understood exactly what Morgana had meant with that piece of advice. Arthur had zeroed in on Merlin’s mouth as soon as the motion started and he couldn’t look away for a few moments even after Merlin’s tongue had retreated back to his mouth. 

“Yeah. Yeah, Merlin, really.” Arthur’s voice had that broken and husky quality to it again. He couldn’t help it. He badly wanted to kiss Merlin, but he wouldn’t do that without being sure that the other man wanted the same thing. 

“Are you sure though, Arthur?” Merlin asked, this time his voice even softer and more unsure. 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure, Merlin. There is one way to be positive though.” Arthur licked his lips and then glanced down at Merlin’s. His gaze was bordering on pleading. His breath was speeding up and he knew that what he wanted should be clear. He had slowly been inching his way across the room towards Merlin during their conversation. They had started off pretty far apart, but now they were closer together. 

Merlin took a second to understand what Arthur meant, but once he did all his blood rushed south. This couldn’t be real. This kind of thing only happened to him in his dreams. Arthur had never before acted this way, touched him like that, flirted with him, or looked at him like he was right now. “Arthur, you can’t be serious. I’m just your manservant. You don’t want me. Not like that, not really…” Now it was Merlin pleading with Arthur. If Merlin got if the smallest taste of being with Arthur he wasn’t going to want to let go of it. Being able to kiss him and touch him in more than a strictly platonic way? That would be close to impossible to get over. What if Arthur kisses him and then he decides that he doesn’t want this? How would Merlin be able to deal with that? 

This time Arthur intentionally drew himself up right in front of Merlin. He was so close to the other man. Merlin was standing there as still as he could make himself, but he was also drawn in as though he could shrink away. Arthur wasn’t going to let Merlin run away from this. Not when he knew that this could be something so amazing for the both of them. If Gwaine was right and Merlin had a thing for him then it was worth it. Morgana was definitely right, something that made him happy was worth going after and Merlin made him happy. 

“Merlin, I think I should be the one deciding that. And yeah, I do want you actually.” He waited after he said that until Merlin finally looked up at him. Then he continues. “God, Merlin, you have no idea what you do to people, do you? What you do to me?” 

Merlin just stood there and shook his head in a tiny motion back and forth. He still doesn’t manage to say a word. “You drive me absolutely insane. I want to memorize you. Every time you blush I get distracted because I can’t help but stare at you and I want to kiss you and then I want to follow the blush because I wonder how far down it goes.”  
Arthur hadn’t really meant to say as much as he had, but once he had started talking he just kind of kept going. The way Merlin’s eyes dilated and his breathing sped up was victory enough for Arthur to get over his embarrassment. His lips were parted as he breathed. There was still a slickness to them from the moment earlier when he had licked them. Just thinking about it made a flare of heat travel downward in Arthur. 

“God, Merlin, don’t even get me started on your lips. I’ve been so distracted lately I’m surprised you haven’t noticed. I’ve been staring at you while you talked. There have been moments where all I wanted more than anything was to just pull you against me and push my lips against yours.” This time when Arthur stopped talking he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t keep his hands to himself. He took his hand and traced his fingers over Merlin’s lips. They were as ridiculously soft as he expected them to be. He felt Merlin’s warm breath hit against his fingers and the desire to kiss him was so strong. 

“Arthur…” Merlin all but whined against his fingers. His tongue peeked out as well hitting his fingers which almost broke Arthur’s self-control. Arthur had never heard Merlin’s voice sound that way before. He knew that he wanted to hear it again though. It was hoarse and wrecked as though he was already completely done in. “Please don’t change your mind.” 

Right as soon as Merlin quit speaking he lunged forward and captured Arthur’s lips with his own. Arthur was completely taken off guard. He hadn’t even had time to process Merlin’s last statement before he had his arms full of the man. It took a few moments before everything actually caught up with what was happening. 

Merlin was quietly freaking out. He was kissing Arthur. This was the man who he had been dreaming about, lusting after, and basically in love with from day one. He had thrown himself at Arthur and attached his lips to the prince’s. Not much was happening beyond that and honestly Merlin was worried that Arthur had already changed his mind. Was it really over before Merlin could get even one decent kiss out of it?

Arthur finally got his mind to connect with the situation when Merlin was about to pull himself away, which Arthur was not about to let happen. Arthur finally convinced the man to kiss him, he was not about to let the opportunity go to waste. Arthur put one hand on Merlin’s waist and the other he tangled in Merlin’s messy black hair. He titled Merlin’s head back a bit and deepened the kiss. That was when it finally turned into a real kiss between them. 

Oh! When Arthur deepened the kiss Merlin could just hold on and go with it. He had thought Arthur wasn’t going to respond at all, but this was better than anything he could have imagined. It was making his entire body burn. One of his hands twisted into the shirt at Arthur’s neck and his other hand was clearly a lot bolder than his mind because it was underneath Arthur’s shirt before his brain had made the decision and it was on the hot skin of Arthur’s hip. 

Both of them groaned at the skin contact which made them both open their mouths and then their tongues snaked together. The new feeling was incredible. They needed more friction. Arthur pushed Merlin back further into the wall which lined up their bodies. It was basically a perfect fit. They both made helpless sounds into the kiss. It was a powerful kiss. They were both overheating. Both had had high expectations of this, but the reality had shattered it. It was so much better. 

Arthur was completely loathe to pull away, but he had to breathe. He tore his lips from Merlin’s completely reluctantly. He kept the man close though. Arthur’s hands remained exactly where they had been during the kiss. There was no way that he was going to let Merlin run away easily if that was the plan. Both of them were breathing hard deep breaths. Much to Arthur’s relief Merlin’s hands had remained exactly where they were as well. 

Once Arthur had gotten some of his breath back he moved on to one of his other favorite characteristics of Merlin’s. His neck. Arthur placed a small kiss right below Merlin’s ear. Merlin’s head automatically fell back against the wall and he took a sharp intake of breath. Arthur continued to lay kisses across Merlin’s neck. With his head back like that his neck was extended and Arthur had perfect access. Merlin started to let out small moans the bolder that Arthur got with the kisses, adding swipes of his tongue and small bites of teeth. Soon enough though Merlin reached the point that he just couldn’t take anymore teasing. He reached a hand back and tangled it in Arthur’s hair and pulled him up to meet his mouth again. 

This kiss was even more desperate than the first one. The two of them were both completely lost in the sensation of the other. Merlin still had his hand in Arthur’s shirt, but a single one just didn’t seem like enough anymore. He wanted the shirt to be off. He started tugging at it. He had pushed it up halfway, but then realized that they would have to break the kiss to get it off and decided against it. 

Merlin’s long fingers were running over Arthur’s abdomen and it was driving him insane. When his fingers moved down to the edge of Arthur’s breeches and traced it he just about lost it. He could help the thrust that he made forward into Merlin’s hips. It was completely involuntary. The friction that it created though was astounding. It caused both of them to moan into the kiss again. The sounds caught by each other’s mouths. 

A knock came at the door which cause them both to startle and pull away from the kiss. Merlin moved to pull away from Arthur, but Arthur held him in place. Arthur knew that Merlin already felt like Arthur was going to change his mind, he needed to show him that he had absolutely no plans to. Arthur leaned forward and placed another soft kiss on Merlin’s lips and then rested his forehead against Merlin’s. Merlin just stood there with a wide eyed look on his face. 

“Yes?” Arthur called out. “What is it?” 

“Uh, well. Sorry to interrupt and all, but Michael showed up. Leon and I were going to go down to see him and everyone get settled if you and Merlin wanted to come along.” Lancelot called uncertainly from the other side of the door. He was probably uncertain because he wasn’t sure if their talk had turned out well or not. 

“Damn it.” Arthur muttered against Merlin’s lips. Merlin almost smiled at that. “Yeah, we’ll be out in a minute.” This time he spoke louder. 

Arthur met Merlin’s eyes and saw the worry there. He knew that Merlin was still worrying about Arthur changing his mind, even after everything. He had no idea how the smaller man could ever think that he would be able to though. Arthur leaned forward and pressed their lips together in one more hard kiss. “I’m not changing my mind, Merlin. Especially not after that. I’ve never had a kiss like that before. And we will be doing it again. Uh, if you want to, I mean.” 

Merlin finally, finally broke into a smile. It was a smaller version of his huge and overly happy smile. It was sweet and charming. He looked up at Arthur who was clearly trying not to freak out while waiting for Merlin’s answer. Which just made Merlin smile wider. Maybe he wasn’t the only one in this after all. “Yeah, I want to kiss you again. All the time actually.” 

When those words finally left his mouth Arthur’s smile came back and he leaned forward to kiss Merlin once again. In the back of his mind there was a small part of him that knew this would be a bad idea because if he started to kiss the man again they wouldn’t be leaving the room today and maybe not tomorrow either. 

Merlin was clearly torn the look on his said that his entire being wanted to kiss Arthur again, but that the small rational side of him was telling him that they needed to go and get Michael and the families settled in. With a last second decision and sad groan Merlin turned his face up so Arthur’s lips landed on Merlin’s neck. Then that groan turned into a moan when Arthur opened his mouth and started to suck and lick at Merlin’s neck. 

“Oh, god, Arthur, don’t stop.” Merlin breathed at him. His voice was husky and breathy. Merlin’s hand quickly moved to Arthur’s hair and tangled in it then tightened there. He couldn’t help it. It felt so amazing his hands were flexing out of a reflex reaction. The other hand snaked farther up Arthur’s shirt and then tightened into a claw on Arthur’s back. Merlin knew he was going to leave fingernail marks on the prince, but he was selfishly very turned on and happy about that fact. 

He was marking the man as his. Even if he technically wasn’t. Even if this only lasted for this one moment. Arthur was his for a few seconds and he would be able to remember it. As it happened Arthur hissed and bucked into Merlin’s body. He also increased the suction on his neck. Merlin who was already ridiculously turned on moaned a hell of a lot louder than he had intended to. 

This time Arthur broke away for air. They were both completely flushed and breathing as though they had just fought an army or run a marathon. Both of their eyes were frantically searching the others. Merlin’s were searching Arthur’s for any sign that he might regret what they’ve done. After all the man was basically straight ninety-nine percent of the time. Arthur on the other hand was searching Merlin for the worry that Arthur was planning to change his mind. Which he definitely found. 

“How much will it take before you believe me when I say that I have no plans to change my mind?” Arthur burst out. He hadn’t meant to sound angry, but a part of him had been a bit angry. 

“You are basically straight though. And you have obligations. Those come first. You have to marry and create an heir and all that. I can’t give you any of that.” Merlin was trying to be coherent. It wasn’t really working all too well though with Arthur still pressed against most of his body. 

“Yes, well I have since come to realize, after a much needed lecture from Morgana, that obligations don’t always need to come first, sometimes happiness does. You give me that and no political alliance princess could.” Arthur was embarrassed at all things coming out of his mouth, but he knew he needed to say it because Merlin needed to hear it. These were the kinds of things that all of the young love struck court girls would say to him that he and Merlin would mock for hours afterward. 

“That is the mushy-ist thing I have ever heard you say!” Merlin said with a big smile on his face. 

“Oi! Shut it, you idiot.” Arthur countered. 

“Thank you, Arthur.” Merlin said sincerely. He stood up straight and gave Arthur a light kiss on the lips, making sure to keep it chaste. “Let’s go talk to Michael and then come back here, yeah?”

  
The two finally exited the room to see a very bored looking Leon and Lancelot standing against the opposite wall. They also looked majorly uncomfortable. More than likely they had heard everything. The room wasn’t exactly soundproof. 

Merlin and Arthur exchanged glances, they were both clearly just coming out of being well kissed. Each man’s hair was a mess and their cheeks were flush. Their lips were red and swollen and their eyes were shining and frantic. Leon and Lancelot both looked as though they had watched someone making out and didn’t get to come. 

“About bloody time.” Lancelot muttered under his breath. Which was surprising to all of them. 

“For what?” Arthur couldn’t help asking. Lancelot was one of the men who was least likely to complain about anything. 

“Well one, for you two to stop having one of the hottest sounding make out sessions since ever and actually come out to join us in going to get these people settled in. And for the second thing for you two to finally get together. You two have been circling around each other for a long time now. Took you long enough to actually get together. Also, going by the state of Merlin’s neck anyone could tell that it went well.” Lancelot just rattled it all off. 

Merlin blushed the most excruciatingly bright red color in his entire life. He doesn’t think he had ever been more embarrassed. Arthur must have left at least one large hickey on his neck! Damn it! Granted no one outside their group would know who it was from so that was perfectly fine, but still. On the other hand, that meant that Arthur wanted to mark him the same way that he wanted to mark Arthur. Which made him want to smile brightly again. 

Merlin knew that Lancelot was straight. When Lancelot had found out about his magic and they had had a conversation about it after he had come back they had also had the conversation about Merlin being gay. It went pretty smoothly considering Lancelot didn’t care. He liked women. He only liked women and as Merlin didn’t like Lancelot there was absolutely no problem. So it was rather odd hearing that Lancelot found just listening to their making out to be hot. 

Leon was looking rather uncomfortable now as well. Most likely because he agrees and because he would rather not say that he agrees. Merlin and Arthur both had no idea what to say to that. Leon wasn’t saying anything or being much help and after Lancelot had said his piece he had just shut up and continued walking. “Uh, thank you?” Merlin finally said. It definitely sounded more like a question, but he really couldn’t help that. 

All three of the other men just started laughing. It was perfect and it broke all of the ice and everything was exactly back to the way it normally was. Except now Merlin and Arthur were walking only inches away from each other and neither one moved away when their hands bushed the other. 

When they finally made it out into the town Gwen was there to meet them. Luckily, she didn’t mention the hickey. It did make sense. She would be able to talk to the women and children easier than the men who fought against their husbands. They all walked down the center road and talked about nothing Lancelot was chatting with Gwen and Arthur was talking to Leon. Merlin was more than glad that things weren’t going to get weird all of a sudden because he and Arthur had kissed. That would have been terrible. He didn’t want to ruin anything. 

Merlin took this as a chance to look around himself. He started taking notice of the people who were watching them or possibly taking more notice of them than they should be. He didn’t notice anyone out of place. Which was a good sign. There were no knights or servants here that shouldn’t be anyway. All of the people surrounding them were the townspeople who lived and worked here every day. 

He was hoping that meant that the spy was not one of the many people surrounding them. If the spy was among them then there was a good chance that they couldn’t do as they had promised and protect these people. Merlin spotted him before Michael and the group of people that was clustered around him spotted them. 

Once Michael did spot them though he immediately made for Merlin. He was the man that Michael had made the rapport with. Merlin was the one who had been able to convince him to gather his family and those of the others and to come to Camelot. “Hello, sir. Your highness.” He said first to Merlin and then after a moment to Arthur. 

“Oh, you don’t have to call me sir!” Merlin automatically corrected him. “Just call me Merlin. I’m no one important. I’m just, er, well I’m just Arthur’s manservant.” Everyone kind of shuffled around awkwardly at that for a moment. Mostly it was all from Arthur and Merlin. No one else knew what had really happened. Lancelot and Leon had a pretty good idea and Gwen could guess, but Michael and everyone else knew nothing. There was no real reason for the awkwardness. 

After that moment finally passed over with Lancelot clearing his throat he started to speak. “So, we know it isn’t all that much. We weren’t sure how many people you would be bringing with you but we had four small cottages cleared out for you. Mostly they had been used by old shop keeps as extra storage now they are letting us rent the space out for you to stay in.” 

After Lancelot had explained Merlin finally felt like he could talk again and not make a fool of himself. “Like he said, we know it isn’t much. Some of you may have to share space, but it should still be comfortable and warm and we very much hope that it will be safe for all of you.” Everyone was looking at Merlin again. All of the women the eight wives and the five children that had come. The trust that shone in their eyes when automatically looking at the man was something amazing. It was a wonder that Arthur hadn’t seen it before. 

Except maybe he had. He had done so himself. Only a short time after knowing the man he had put his trust in him with the whole Valiant mess. Of course, Merlin had turned out to be right, which justified the trust, but it shouldn’t have been so easy to trust someone so quickly. There was just something about Merlin. He was a wonder. 

“We do realize that it isn’t anything special. We wish that we could afford you better accommodations, but we feel that you would be safer out here. That way you would be kept away from whoever it is feeding information to this mystery person. Of course, all of your food and any other needs will be taken care of. You’ll have no worries here.” Arthur spoke just like a true king should, Merlin thought as soon as he had finished speaking. If only Uther could see that quality in his son. There was no chance that Uther would ever afford those kind of things to anyone other than a visiting royal. Arthur on the other hand shows the true sign of a great leader by showing kindness to those of a lower station. 

Merlin had clearly been lost in his own thoughts. He had completely missed the conversation between Michael and Arthur. They were talking about how no grudge was held against the other. The women were quite sad of course, but they bore no grudge either. The knights were protecting themselves. Michael and the others were hired to rob them at sword point and kill them if possible. They were defending their lives. 

Merlin was more than glad that things were working out for the better. Gwen was talking with a few of the wives. They were grieving and of course some of them wouldn’t exactly want to deal with the knights at the moment. That was more than understandable. Merlin stood there and took in the whole scene. Once Arthur becomes king, he could create a much more peaceful place. 

Merlin felt a hand hitting his leg a couple of times. When Merlin looked down there was a small boy there probably about seven years old. “Hi! You’re the man my dad mentioned.” 

“Yeah, I guess I must be.” Merlin answered looking back over towards Michael and Arthur talking. He squatted down so that he could be closer to the boy’s height. He was a short seven year old. 

“My dad said you were the nice one. The one without a sword.” The boy spoke he sounded like he had done a lot of crying recently. He probably had been since so much had changed for him in such a short period of time. 

“Oh, they aren’t so bad. A bunch of teddy bears once you get to know them. What’s your name? Mine’s Merlin.” Merlin was trying to lighten the mood clearly the boy was scared and he didn’t really have a place. The other kids were probably mad that he still had a father when they didn’t. 

“I’m David. And I don’t know. I don’t think anyone can be a teddy bear if they are a knight. Teddy bears are soft knights wear armor.” David contradicted him. He was making a point now. Clearly he wanted to point out Merlin’s error. 

“Well clearly I wasn’t expecting to be talking to a kid that was so smart now was I? I was kind of hoping for someone that I could fool with my metaphors. I grew up in a village like yours. If you want the smart metaphors you might be better off asking Arthur. Seriously though any of them, a few well-placed smiles or tears and they would be putty for a child.” Now Merlin had gotten David to smile. And it wasn’t that grief stricken small I don’t actually want to smile it was a real one. It was the I’m still a kid and I enjoy life smile.  
Arthur had stopped talking when Michael had stopped paying attention both Michael and his wife, Tessa, had completely stopped short and stared off behind him. They were looking at Merlin who was talking to a smiling and laughing little boy. When he turned back to the couple they both had tears in their eyes. 

“What’s wrong?” Arthur asked them. 

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing is wrong. That’s our David. He hasn’t smiled or laughed like that since Michael came back. He’s been an outcast to his friends and he’s felt so lost and alone I think. He been so shut off, even from us. It is so wonderful to see him like that again, so carefree.” Tessa said her tears streaking down her face, but a smile gracing her features. “That man, Merlin, he really seems to have a way with people.” 

“Yeah, he really does. You’re right about that.” Arthur murmured. 

“I’m sorry if this sounds rude or out of place, but he should be so much more than just a manservant. His way with people, it’s an asset. You shouldn’t let that go to waste.” She finished speaking and then with a small smile went over to where David was still talking with Merlin. He had been joined by two of the other kids and Merlin had made sure that they had to involve David in every single thing. 

Gwen had made her way back from where the wives were all congregating now. They were figuring out who was to stay in which cottage. Gwen had explained which cottages were made up of what and how all of them were laid out. She had also explained the town’s layout and the way to her own cottage. She had explain as much as she possibly could. Now it was up to them to decide. 

“She is right you know. He should be more than just your manservant. Did you two, um, discuss things?” Gwen asked as delicately as possible. 

“Yes, to some extent. We still need to discuss more things. We were a bit interrupted.” Arthur was turning red he knew he was. The only saving grace was that so was Gwen. 

“And is he? More than just your manservant?” Gwen asked him. This answer came easy for Arthur. 

“I’ve always thought so. He’s my friend. He always will be. Regardless of if this works out or not. He tells me the truth when I need it, Gwen. I don’t get that from anyone. I tell him anything and probably a lot he doesn’t want to or care to know. I ask his opinions on things. Yeah, he’s always been and will always be more than just my manservant.”

Arthur answered, god, he was getting way too cheesy. He was going to have to tone it down. 

“Good. Then I can tell Morgana that we won’t have to kill you and she owes me that bottle of wine.” Gwen was smug. That was a completely unusual look on her. 

Arthur’s jaw dropped. “You two made a bet on me….” 

“Yes, if it makes you feel any better, I bet on you.” Gwen spoke still smiling. 

“No! That does not make me feel better!” Arthur hissed out before turning and walking away. 


	8. But Talking is Boring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Merlin finally continue that talk that kept getting interrupted.   
> There's not too much plot stuff going on in this chapter. It's a lot more focused on Merlin and Arthur's relationship and how that stand. Which plays a huge role in the story, so It does further the story in that sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!! I have been away for forever, I know. I'm really terribly sorry. I'm not abandoning my story. I was just dealing with life that got in the way. I'm hoping that I'm getting to a better work/ life/ health balance now and so I should be able to write more!! Here's a decently long chapter I hope makes up for it. Please read and review and I hope you enjoy!!

It didn’t take much time for all of the newcomers to want to retire to their different cottages. Gwen decided to stay in town with them and help them all settle in and decide which space would be best for each of them. Lancelot had of course decided to stay with Gwen. He was always happy to have as much time as he could with her.

It wasn’t that long ago that Lancelot had come to Arthur and asked him if he had any intentions towards Gwen. Of course Arthur and Gwen had months before that decided that a relationship between them wasn’t something that could work. Gwen had feelings for him and Arthur had feelings for her, but to her he was always going to be the Prince. She would never be able to just see him as Arthur.

Arthur was honestly surprised at how long it had taken his knight to come to him and ask that question. He had actually had a running bet with Merlin, but they had both guessed for him to have made inquiries weeks before he actually had. Of course Arthur gave him his every blessing with Guinevere. The way that Guinevere looked at Lancelot far outweighed the way she had ever looked at him. So Lancelot had begun courting Gwen and there wasn’t a doubt in any of their minds, no matter who it was that saw them, that the two would be happy together.

On the other hand, for Arthur, Merlin had never been someone who saw him only as a prince. Even when Merlin showed him that kind of deference he still saw the person behind the title. Gwen had managed to stand up to him a few times and showed him honesty despite him being a prince, but only in times of high emotions. Merlin was very consistent with that attitude. To Arthur that kind of honesty and the feeling of being normal that it gave him was irreplaceable.

From the very first time that Arthur had met Merlin he knew that there was something about the skinny dark haired man. Arthur must be a complete idiot if it really took him all this time and an attempted relationship with Gwen to realize how much Merlin truly means to him. Even when he had thoughts of running away from his title and his duties, he always pictured Merlin being there. It’s a wonder that it took him so long and multiple dreams to finally reach this point. They were always going to end up here. He could feel it in his bones.

Now that Arthur knew how deeply he cared for the other man, there’s nothing that Merlin could say to make Arthur walk away from him. Not anymore. Regardless of all the succession issues this might one day bring up, Arthur was going to fight tooth and nail to keep Merlin.

Arthur and Merlin were joined on the walk back to the castle by Leon for less than a minute. The silence was clearly heavy between them to drive off one of the most determined people Merlin had ever known. Leon didn’t even say anything he just broke away from them and went to stop at one of the small carts. Both of the other men turned to look at him, but when the man showed no signs of rejoining them they easily moved on.

To be quite honest Arthur was more than a bit glad that Leon had left them. That meant that when they got back to the castle Arthur could take Merlin right back to his chambers and they could hopefully get back to kissing. The walk back was unhurried for both of them. There was a charge between them that clearly meant that they would be hashing out the rest of the conversation that had been ignored earlier.

While they were walking through the town Arthur tried his best to keep his eyes off of his manservant. It was getting increasingly difficult. Merlin had clearly noticed that Arthur was trying not to stare and he made it more and more difficult for him.

When Merlin saw that Arthur was trying just as hard not to stare at him as he was trying not to stare at the prince he figured he may as well have some fun with this. It could very well be only for today that Arthur decided to look at him with that kind of desire lighting his eyes. There was no way that Merlin was going to let the chance pass him by.

Without really thinking through his actions Merlin let himself walk closer to Arthur and their hands would brush every so often. Seeing the light blush that stained Arthur’s cheeks afterwards made Merlin bite his lips for fear of smiling too widely. Whenever Arthur would turn to look over at him, which was inevitable after their hands would brush Merlin would do something else to catch his attention.

What Merlin found to work the best was when he chose to run his other hand over the spot that bore the mark that Arthur’s mouth left on his skin. Each time that Merlin could hear the small hitch in Arthur’s breathing his smile wanted to stretch wide across his face, but he bit his lips again and held it all back. Merlin didn’t want Arthur to notice what he was doing. At least not right away.

It was actually only a short time later that Merlin could tell that Arthur had it all figured out. The prince knew exactly what his manservant had been doing to him. Arthur went tense at first, but then he just relaxed and sped up his steps. The faster that they reached Arthur’s chambers the better for them. Merlin had been teasing him the entire walk back so far and there was no way that Arthur was going to let him get away with that.

Of course Merlin noticed when Arthur sped up his pace. He figured that he had been caught out, but he didn’t think that Arthur would have been mad about it. Arthur was the one who had started all of this after all. Without really thinking about it Merlin naturally sped up and matched his steps to Arthur’s. He had never been one to just trail after the prince meekly. From day one he challenged the man and that was the foundation that their friendship actually stood on now. He had no plans to start being quiet and submissive now of all times. If Arthur was going to get mad over something like harmless teasing then whatever this was between them would never work anyway.

When Merlin finally caught up to the man, he had been quite a few steps behind before he sped up, he figured out how wrong he was. Arthur wasn’t mad. Not even close. Arthur’s normally bright blue eyes were darker and blown wide as they had been earlier when they had been kissing.

Merlin almost lost his footing at the look on Arthur’s face. He really hoped that no one else around them could read the prince as well as he could. Arthur’s hand flashed out and caught Merlin by his arm to keep him from falling. The warmth of his hand could be felt through his layers of clothing. Merlin couldn’t help the tiny gasp of air that rushed out of his mouth.

Arthur’s lips parted on a breath as well, but Merlin forces himself to look away and pull his arm away from Arthur’s touch. If he were to stay there like they were in that seemingly frozen moment Merlin was sure he would have done something like kiss Arthur where everyone could see and land himself in the dungeons waiting to be executed. Without waiting around to see if Arthur was going to follow Merlin headed off at an even faster pace than before.

It took forever and only seconds to make it back to Arthur’s chambers. Merlin opened the door for the prince and did the job as the dutiful manservant waiting for Arthur to go into the room first. Granted, most manservants wouldn’t have been looking at their charge with so much lust in their eyes. Moments later Merlin was yanked into the room by his wrist.

He almost toppled over, but it was only a moment before that fall turned into him being pushed hard up against the now closed door to Arthur’s chambers. There was a bit of shock when his back hit the door, but Merlin wasn’t complaining. Arthur was hot and hard as he pushed himself between Merlin’s legs.

Merlin was content to just lean against the wall and let Arthur do as he pleased in that moment. It was absolutely everything that Merlin had ever fantasized about. Arthur’s hands were relentless and they unknotted the neckerchief Merlin wore and he tossed it across the room. Merlin didn’t even have a chance to miss it before one of Arthur’s hands came up and lightly circled his throat tracing over the marks that had been left there only hours previously.

“You’re a bloody tease, Merlin.” Arthur’s voice was as husky as he had ever heard it. It was low and practically a growl. The predatory curl to his words made Merlin’s entire body shiver.

“I like knowing that you marked me. I like that people can see the marks and know exactly how I got them, even if they don’t know it was you who gave them to me.” Merlin hadn’t even known his voice could pitch as low as it was now. It was quiet and breathless and so much more turned on than he had ever been before.

Without any hesitation Merlin tilts his head back like an offering to Arthur. It’s a showing of trust as much as anything else. Arthur’s hand tightens carefully around Merlin’s throat before he slides his hand around in a single moment and pulls Merlin towards him for a fierce kiss.

The heat between them scorches them both. They are wearing way too many clothes for this. Right now that is the only thought in Merlin’s mind and he reaches forward and yanks Arthur’s shirt off of him. It was a motion that he had made so many times before as he undressed the prince, but never with this kind of intention behind the movement. Arthur was only in his breeches now and even though Merlin was still mostly dressed he didn’t care. Clearly Arthur didn’t seem to care either and he simply pushed Merlin back against the door a second later.

Merlin still wanted to get closer to the prince. After fantasizing about exactly this kind of scenario there was no way he was going to settle for how they were standing now. There was no warning for Arthur when Merlin suddenly decided to wrap his legs around his waist and hook them there. The change in their position brought their cock into perfect alignment making them both groan low and needy.

There was no chance that Arthur was going to let Merlin let his legs drop after feeling how connected they were. Arthur’s hands quickly moved from Merlin’s throat to slot into place under his ass. Of course when they finally settled there Arthur couldn’t help the squeeze of pressure he applied. He had been wanting to get his hands on this part of Merlin for a while now. Merlin’s hips had a mind of their own and bucked into Arthur’s body as soon as he felt the hands clench into his skin.

It was minutes later, even though it felt like it could have been only seconds or a few hours, when there was a clatter of a serving tray somewhere outside the door. It cause both of them men to pull apart and look around to find the source of the noise. When they heard voices a ways down the hall they both relaxed back into their hold on each other.

Merlin took a deep breath. This was going to take every ounce of self-control that he could find. “We should probably finish talking about this.”

“If you say so,” Arthur murmured into Merlin’s neck. The prince has yet to let go of Merlin at all and has simply buried his lips against the soft skin around the mark from earlier.

“Are you going to let me down, then?” Merlin finally managed to ask without sounding like he was begging for the opposite.

“Not a chance,” Arthur’s chuckle was lost in Merlin’s skin, but Merlin could still feel it against him.

“And how are we supposed to talk when we’re standing like this?” Merlin forced the words out of his mouth even though he would much rather skip talking all together.

“This is your fault,” Arthur drawled the words out to be as annoying as possible, Merlin was sure. Each word drew the man’s lips over his pulse point and Merlin could barely think let alone form complete sentences.

“My – wha- huh?” It was a broken, not quite coherent, jumble of words. Merlin wasn’t even sure if Arthur would get what he was asking.

“You decided that it was a good idea to tease me all the way back here.” Arthur tightened his grip on Merlin’s ass wishing that his hands were on bare skin. His words were said into Merlin’s neck, but as soon as he stopped speaking he pressed a harsh kiss to Merlin’s lips. “So clearly this is all your fault.”

Merlin heard Arthur’s word, but after that kiss they didn’t actually make any sense to him for a few moments. He was a bit too caught up with the fact that he was kissing the crown prince of Camelot and not only that, but Merlin had his legs wrapped around Arthur’s waist. It wasn’t something even he could have thought up in his wildest dreams. This was pretty much the last scenario he would have ever expected to come true, which was why they needed to talk.

“Fuck,” Merlin bit out the word before crashing his lips forward onto Arthur’s. He poured everything into that kiss. All of the want that he had been hiding away for the entire time he had known the prince along with every ounce of pure need, lust, and even that horrifying bit that was clearly love even if Merlin didn’t want to admit it.

After a few solid minutes of kissing that was much too short if Merlin was being honest, he pulled himself away from Arthur. He couldn’t go far since he was still wrapped around the prince, but he did manage to put a bit of space between the rest of them and he kept his hands against Arthur’s shoulders to keep him from initiating another kiss.

“ _Mer_ lin…” Arthur’s face was flushed and his eyes were blown wide enough with lust that the only blue that Merlin could find was the tiniest ring surrounding his pupils. Hearing Arthur say his name that way should have come across funny, but instead of the whine he had expected the word came across dark and hungry and filled with everything Merlin couldn’t name. All it did was make Merlin almost forget himself and slide back into another kiss.

It took a few very deep breaths to pull himself back together enough to not give in the second he looked at Arthur’s swollen lips. “This is how we ended up not talking earlier… We keep getting distracted.”

“And I think that this is a much better use of our time than talking.” Arthur tried to push forward past Merlin’s rock solid grip and surprisingly got absolutely nowhere.

“Arthur, please. We need to figure this, whatever this is, out.” Merlin forced the words past his lips. This conversation could be the death of him. He was planning on pointing out exactly how many flaws there were to this idea and exactly how idiotic Arthur was being. Merlin wasn’t going to slide by any of the issues and he was going to make Arthur see how much of a mistake he could be making now, before he could one day realize it down the road. By then Merlin would have already been too far gone and he would be heartbroken if Arthur called it off. Granted it could already be too late for that. Merlin was pretty sure that he would be just as heartbroken now as he would be in six months or a year.

"Fine,” the word was a sigh on Arthur’s lips. Arthur moved himself away from Merlin enough that he could lower Merlin’s legs back to the ground and then he let go of his manservant all together.

Merlin’s face shuttered quickly. It went through a range of emotions before Arthur was even a full two feet away from him. Arthur quickly moved back into the man’s space and pressed a soft quick kiss to his lips. “No. Stop looking at me like that. Like I’m already ending this or something. I’m not, it’s just if we’re going to talk we need to do it sitting over there at the table. You can’t expect me to have any kind of a coherent conversation with you warm in my arms, now can you?”

Merlin relaxed at Arthur’s words. Even though he felt cold where Arthur had previously been hot against him the words had warmed him a bit. They were going to talk and then depending on Arthur’s decisions they would either go back to kissing or Merlin would leave. The idea made him feel cold all over again, but he followed the shirtless Arthur to the table and sat down in the chair next to him. They were angled enough that they were facing each other and it was clear from the look on both of their faces that neither one knew where to start this conversation.

“So, all of that happened,” Arthur finally ventured to say. Merlin was the one who had declared that they talk, so he should have been the one to start the conversation. When his manservant just sat there with his mouth stubbornly closed Arthur decided that he needed to say something.

“It did,” was all Merlin could respond with for a long moment. “Do you regret it yet?”

“No, you idiot,” Arthur rolls his eyes at the other man’s words. “I’m not going to regret kissing you, or wanting you, or being with you.”

“I think you might though. Maybe not today or even anytime soon, but one of these days you’ll wake up and realize I’m just a servant and that there are so many better people for you out there.” Merlin knew all of this could happen, but what he was truly worried about was the day Arthur found out about his magic. That would be the day the prince would truly regret having anything to do with Merlin.

"I don’t think I will. I can’t picture anyone who could be better for me than you are. Be honest Merlin, I’m a different person than the one you met on your first day in Camelot. Being friends with you and having you around has made me a better person, a better prince, and one day a better king.” It was all true of course, granted Arthur never figured he would have actually told any of that to the man in front of him before the words were coming out of his mouth.

“You are. You’re going to be the greatest king this land has ever known.” Both of them paused for a minute at the words and the heavy feeling of the moment. It was an impactful and meaningful one for the both of them. “What about your father? You’d have to lie to him. He would never approve of me in any capacity, let alone of being in your bed. Even if you promised him this was just a fling, he’d have me strung up.”

“I know and I refuse to let that happen. It’s true he wouldn’t be happy about us being together, but I don’t tell my father everything and I’m perfectly content to lie to him if that means I get to have you.” Arthur was as sure on this as he was on everything else they had talked about so far. It should bother him, the idea of lying to his father, but it didn’t in the slightest. Not when it was Merlin he was lying for.

“You shouldn’t have to lie to your father every day because of me.” For Merlin this was straying dangerously close to the idea of his magic. This was exactly the problem he didn’t want Arthur to have if he was faced with the truth about Merlin’s abilities. 

“And I’m telling you that it’s worth it. Why can’t you believe me?” Arthur’s voice was turning exasperated. This had never been a problem in their friendship, but now that it could be something more between them it was getting progressively trickier to navigate.

“Because you are the crown prince of Camelot and I’m just a manservant, Arthur.” Merlin was looking at Arthur completely serious. There was a big difference in their stations and anyone would notice how completely Merlin didn’t deserve Arthur’s attentions.

“Oh, is that why you call me a prat all the time?” Arthur drawled lazily easily lightening the mood of the conversation with that single sentence.

“Well you need someone to be honest with you or else your head might explode.” Merlin joked back with Arthur. This was something easy, the quick banter between the two of them. This he understood.

“We can’t have that. I think you like my head exactly where it is.” Now Arthur was smiling again. He enjoyed teasing Merlin and seeing the slight happy flush that it brought to the man’s face.

The flush on Merlin’s face went an even darker red when he realized exactly what Arthur had said. “Shut up,” Merlin mumbled when he came to terms with the truth of the statement. If he wasn’t careful he was going to be telegraphing to just about everyone how gone he was on Arthur.

“You can’t talk to me like that.” The smirk that was plastered across Arthur’s face was one that read of an inside joke between the two flashing back to the first day they met.

“Oh, terribly sorry. Shut up, my lord.” The two smiled at each other for a long moment. If anyone were to have walked in on that moment between them it would have been more intimate than if someone had walked in when Arthur had had Merlin pinned to the wall.

“See, I’ve never been the crown prince to you, not really. And that’s what I want and what I need. You actually treat me like I’m human. And you’ve never been just a manservant. You’re also an ally, friend, and advisor when I need one. You have to be able to see that as well, Merlin.” Arthur was staring hard at the man before him, wondering just when those words would hit home.

“One day though, Arthur, you’re going to be king. Right now, you’re still the crown prince of Camelot, even if we don’t talk like you are, and you have certain obligations to fulfill. Or at least your father will be expecting you to fulfill them. I know you said that some things should come before your duties. And I think you’re right about some of that. It’s just…” Merlin trails off. He knows where he was going with that, he just hadn’t expected the words to be so difficult to say.

“It’s just what, Merlin?” Arthur leaned forward in his seat. Whatever Merlin planned to object to or whatever flaws he saw in this, Arthur would counter them. He was going to keep Merlin exactly where he had him. He just got the gangly man there and there was no chance that Arthur was going to back away now. Not without a fight at least.

“You’ll be expected to have a queen at your side, Arthur.” Merlin let his gaze fall from Arthur’s face to the floor. He didn’t want to watch the prince’s reaction. Not about this.

“Is that what this is about? That’s all a long way off, Merlin. I don’t plan on marrying anytime soon and definitely not someone whom I don’t even love. I know my father wants to make some strategic match, but he’s so worried about something becoming more valuable that he’s never made any kind of a commitment about it and he won’t.” Arthur wanted to laugh off the idea of his potential marriage, he tried to make it light in his explanation to Merlin, but even he really wasn’t sold on his father not planning it all out soon.

"You don’t know that. And I know you don’t. We’ve both seen the way he looks at you like he’s planning on auctioning you off to the highest bidder.” Merlin’s hadn’t even had to look up to read the falseness to Arthur’s words. He knows the prince much too well to be convinced by his easy attitude toward it all.

Arthur contains the huge sigh that wants to escape him. “I still have no plans or desire for some political marriage.”

“I know that. That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t still feel duty bound to follow through if your father put it to you tomorrow. How am I supposed to be with you and watch as you try to court various princesses and ladies?” Merlin countered Arthur’s statement with something that was pretty clear cut. This time Merlin did chance a look up at Arthur’s face and he could see it written there that he would feel extremely guilty if he denied his father, even about his own marriage choices.

“I would feel some sense of duty to agree to a marriage if my father presented it. I won’t lie to you. That doesn’t mean that I would go through with it. I don’t want some princess hanging off my arm and deferring to my every word. Even if she carried the title of queen she wouldn’t have anything on you. You are the person that I want, Merlin. I know that it’s a lot to ask when I can’t make any promises while my father is still the king, but, just please, don’t give up on this.” Arthur’s eyes turned soft at the end of his explanation. He didn’t want Merlin to put an end to this when Arthur was just now finally able to kiss him.

“You think that’s what I want? It’s not. I’ve wanted-” Merlin cut himself off with a flash of heat high on his face. 

“What? What have you wanted?” Arthur had noticed the half said sentence and now he needed to hear the finished version of it. If Merlin wanted something to make this all easier Arthur definitely wanted to know about it.

“This. I’ve wanted this for a long time. Just because you were a complete ass when we first met doesn’t mean I didn’t still want you.” Merlin owned up to it after a long moment of silence. He figured Arthur’s ego couldn’t really be inflated all that much more anyway. More often than not the prince assumed people wanted him whenever they met him and of course he was usually right.

“Really? I wasn’t sure. Especially when you said that you liked guys. You’ve never hit on me before so I just kind of assumed that I wasn’t your type or something.” Arthur finished with a shrug of his shoulders, but he felt happier than he showed. It wasn’t just some spur of the moment decision for Merlin. The man had thought about this and has consciously wanted the prince for some time now.

“I thought you were straight! Plus, how would that have really gone over do you think? ‘Good morning, sire. How are you today? You have training in an hour and a meeting with the council later. Also, I want to crawl into bed with you.’ I’m pretty sure that would have ended badly. And it would have been so much worse if I had just tried to kiss you like I did with Gwaine. I learned my lesson from that one.” Merlin ranted at Arthur. He wasn’t about to just agree that he should have made a move when the consequences for it could have been pretty extreme.

Arthur had been happy at hearing most of Merlin’s rant. Hearing the words ‘I want to crawl into bed with you’ come out of Merlin’s mouth had made his lust come back in full force. Even if Merlin had said it jokingly, it was something that Arthur had been thinking about constantly for days. At the mention of Gwaine though he scowled and his desire dropped like a rock.

“Are you scowling? Don’t tell me you’re jealous…” Merlin smiled wide at the annoyed look on Arthur’s face.

“Shut up, _Mer_ lin.” Arthur crossed his arms over his chest and sunk down lower in his chair.

Merlin let out a small chuckle at the thought of Arthur being jealous that he had kissed Gwaine. Then it sent a shiver through him. He liked the fact that Arthur was jealous. He loved it actually. The idea of Arthur being annoyed that Merlin had kissed someone else was surprisingly perfect. It made Merlin feel like Arthur wanted to claim him and not just sneak off in an empty room every so often.

Before he could think better of it, Merlin leaned forward in his chair and easily captured Arthur’s pouting lips with his own. The kiss was slow and sweet and nowhere near the hungry and needy kisses from earlier, but it was just as hot and just as amazing. When they broke apart Arthur no longer had his arms crossed and they were both breathing heavier. The tension between them crackled in the air, but Merlin pulled himself away before they could get distracted again.

“If we are going to do this…” Merlin saw Arthur’s face break into a bright and glowing smile. Merlin had to take a deep breath before continuing. “I just need to put a few things out there first. I know that while your father is king we can’t be public about it, but I don’t want to be your little secret either. There are already people who kind of know, I wouldn’t want to hide it from them. Also, if you are set to get married or decide to seriously court someone and you plan on following through, I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore. As much as it would suck to watch you with someone else I couldn’t be there for you to kiss when you aren’t with her. You can’t make me compete with some gorgeous princess. I’d lose hands down. Not to mention you’d have all of me and I’d only have bits and pieces hidden away with you.”

“You’ll never have to compete with anyone, Merlin. Haven’t you realized by now that I tend to pay a lot more attention to you than any girl my father invites to court? Trust me when I say that I’d rather have you than some simpering lady in waiting. I’d be bored to tears on a daily basis. I haven’t truly been interested in someone since Guinevere and even then you were always there. Clearly I crave your company more than anyone else’s. I can’t see that changing. Plus, I’d never do that. Expect you to be some secret consort? I wouldn’t,” Arthur promised. He truly would never expect anyone to be a consort to him if he was married. That wouldn’t be fair to a single person in that scenario. Especially not Merlin, the man meant a lot more to him than even he had expected.

“So you actually want to try this? With me? It’s worth it to you? There are a lot of risks for both of us for you to be getting involved with someone so far below your station.” Merlin’s hands were gripping hard at the base of the chair he was sitting in. He was anxious to hear the answer and also nervous for it. He knew what Arthur had already said, but he still wasn’t sure if the prince truly wanted this.

“Yes, Merlin. I want to do this. We’ve handled a lot more dangerous and insane situations before. We can figure out this as well. Morgana told me that I need to be able to find happiness, especially if I want to be a good king. I can’t very well be miserable and rule my people well, can I? This is me finding happiness. I want you Merlin, you make me better. Though if you ever tell anyone that, I’ll probably deny it.” Arthur’s smile was wide and breathtaking across his face. It practically lit up the room.

Merlin couldn’t actually stop the swell of affection or the warmth that washed over him. It was like something in Arthur was calling to him and his magic was reacting to it all. It felt more perfect that even using his magic deliberately. A smile broke out on Merlin’s face as well and he just let himself soak in the moment. “So we’re officially doing all of this then?”

“Yes, we really are Merlin. Now, come here.” It was a demand and a question all at once. Arthur didn’t want to push Merlin, but he really wanted the other man within touching distance.

Merlin only hesitates for a split second before he makes up his mind and is out of his chair and climbing onto Arthur’s lap. He’s still amazed that he’s actually allowed to do this. In the past he has always made sure to keep even his thoughts strictly in check around Arthur. Now here he is able to touch and kiss the crown prince of Camelot.

Merlin took a moment to revel in the feel of Arthur hot and willing under his hips and hands. Those hands that were currently running over the smooth chest that was presented to him. It was only a few more seconds before Merlin slotted his lips back over Arthur’s. The heat was immediate and both of them instinctively relaxed into each other and into the kiss.

They stayed just like that, kissing and slowly letting themselves map out the other’s body for long minutes. When they finally broke apart it was because just kissing wasn’t nearly enough for them anymore. Their kisses had turned maddeningly feverish quickly and now they needed friction and skin on skin contact. They needed to be closer to one another and they desperately needed that right now.

Arthur’s breath was rushing back into him after his lips parted from Merlin’s. His hands were clenched in the fabric of Merlin’s shirt and he was just about to finally remove it from the dark haired man when he froze. The prince looked up at Merlin’s face and studied the flush on his cheeks and his lust blown eyes. Arthurs gaze locked onto Merlin’s red and swollen lips for a long minute. He just couldn’t make himself look away from the evidence of what they had just been doing.

“What? What’s wrong, Arthur?” Merlin’s voice was breathy and like it hadn’t been used in days not just a few minutes. The worry in the man’s voice did turn out to be the shock Arthur needed to bring himself back to the present.

“Merlin, answer me honestly, you aren’t just doing this because I want it right? I know that some people will take advantage of the fact that a servant isn’t supposed to say no to their orders and use that for things like, well, this. I just… you have every right to say no. I’m not going to sack you over it.” Arthur had never felt more like an inarticulate idiot in his life. Half of the words that came out of his mouth felt out of place and jarring in his chambers.

Merlin had been worried when Arthur had suddenly gone tense. It could have been anything from the prince having heard a noise outside of his chambers and thought maybe someone was at the door. Or it could have been that Arthur had picked up on Merlin’s magic saturating the room. Apparently when Merlin was just about desperate for something his magic wanted to let loose and give it to him, whatever it was. When he was a child that was how he had surprised his mother by getting second and third helpings of dessert. This was a much different scenario, but this was the most Merlin had ever wanted something so far in his life. It had never been a problem for him during sex before, apparently Merlin wanted Arthur a lot more than he had wanted anyone else previously.

It turns out that Merlin had no need to worry about either of those things. Merlin quickly leaned back down into Arthur’s space and placed his lips softly over the prince’s. This kiss was slow and sweet and said everything about exactly how much Merlin wanted this of his own volition.

“You are an idiot,” Merlin ground the words out after he finally pulled his lips away from Arthur’s. It had been a much softer and sweet kiss, but clearly the meaning and intent was there for the both of them since their breathing was heavy and rushed.

Arthur took the hint and stood up from his place in the chair taking Merlin with him. It wasn’t hard to keep ahold of Merlin once he was standing. It was however, difficult to concentrate on finding his way to the bed when Merlin decided to dedicate his time to putting his mouth on Arthur’s neck.

More than anything in this moment Arthur wanted to see if his fantasy matched with the reality of having Merlin spread out on his bead and beneath him. It took way too much time to cross the room and fall into bed with his manservant. When they finally did collapse onto the bed though Merlin let out a breathless chuckle and looked smiling up at Arthur.

Arthur looked down at the man with something close to awe. It was amazing having Merlin in this sort of situation that had seemed absolutely the farthest thing from possible just a few days ago. “Naked. Now.”

Merlin answered with a smile and reached down to take over for Arthur in removing his own shirt. After that though Merlin decided to move back to working at getting Arthur naked. Merlin worked at the laces of Arthur’s breeches and they quickly came undone under his fingers. In this moment Merlin was ridiculously glad that Arthur made him help dress and undress the prince.  

Merlin quickly kicked his shoes off over the edge of the bed and toed off Arthur’s boots for him. It should have been a hard process, but it was so easy especially with his magic inundating the air around him straining to give Merlin anything he wanted. Arthur on the other hand was still struggling with Merlin’s laces.

Without giving Arthur any help Merlin traced his hands down the other man’s chest and let them slide into the already loose pants. His hand wrapped around Arthur’s cock and gave one experimental tug to see Arthur’s reaction.

Arthur groaned loud and desperate. Merlin’s hand was hot and sure on his cock. He almost let himself give up completely on Merlin’s laces, but he renewed his efforts instead. Arthur was hungry to see the rest of Merlin. It didn’t take too much longer for Arthur to finally get his hands coordinated enough to undo the laces and reciprocate the movement. He had had too many moments where he froze at the pleasure of having Merlin’s hand wrapped around him for it to be quick work though it did finally get done.

Merlin’s hand tightened on Arthur when he felt the prince’s hand wrap around his own cock. It was a heady feeling knowing that it was Arthur’s hand giving him such an intense sensation. Their movements were in sync with one another. Merlin surged upward and caught Arthur’s lips in a frenzied kiss. That single element added a certain quality of need that hadn’t been there a second before and now their movements were almost erratic.

“Pants off. Come on, Merlin,” Arthur demanded as soon as their lips parted.

Merlin had to hold himself back from simply wishing their pants out of existence. He knows that if he thought about it his magic would act without any prompting and they would both very suddenly, be naked in Arthur’s bed. That would be an incredibly bad time to come out as a sorcerer.

Instead Merlin let Arthur push at his breeches and he returned the favor. It took a bit of wiggling around, but eventually they were both finally naked. Merlin was splayed out on the bed for Arthur to drink in. It was intoxicating, looking Merlin over in this situation. He was lithe and beautiful and completely Arthur’s. The man looked as though he belonged on Arthur’s bed and there is nowhere else that the prince would rather Merlin be.

Arthur let out a short deep noise from the back of his throat. It was an involuntary sound at seeing Merlin so open like this. God, Arthur wanted him. There was absolutely no chance that Arthur would be willing to give this up later. As long as Merlin was sticking around Arthur would want the other man right here, in his bed.

Finally after looking for what was much too short of a time Arthur rolled over to slot his body along Merlin’s. The skin on skin contact caused them both to moan obscenely. It felt like they had been waiting forever for this moment. His lips were next to connect with Merlin. Though instead of going for Merlin’s lips Arthur went right for the other man’s neck. The soft skin there was a temptation that Arthur wasn’t planning to hold himself back from.

Merlin was lost as soon as Arthur’s skin slid along his own. Their cocks lined up against one another and the friction was perfect. Merlin had to keep his magic in check though and so he tried to draw it into himself, but that just compounded his pleasure. This was going to be over quickly if his magic kept amplifying each and every touch from Merlin’s perspective.  

When Arthur’s lips attached themselves to his neck though Merlin was completely drawn in. There was only the tiniest amount of his concentration that held onto the idea that he couldn’t just let his magic go free and unchecked. Every single other bit of him was lost to the sensations he was now experiencing. Each new movement sent another curl of heat and magic to settle low and hot in his gut.

This really was going to be over embarrassingly quickly. Merlin decided right then that he was going to make Arthur fall apart first if it was the only thing that happened in that room. With that thought in mind Merlin forced himself to move even though his body was screaming against letting his neck and Arthur’s mouth separate. Merlin used his body to turn Arthur over onto his back and Merlin proceeded to map out the prince’s body.

It wasn’t simply enough to trail his hands over every inch of Arthur that Merlin could find, but he let his lips trail the same path right afterwards. Arthur had made a startled sound of annoyance when Merlin had decided to move them around, but as soon as Merlin brought their bodies back together he really found no reason to complain.

Arthur watched the proceedings as he was laying back on his bed with hooded eyes. He was taking in every movement and embracing the heat coiled in him. Merlin currently had his lips ghosting over his hipbones and causing Arthur’s breath to hitch in at random moments. When Merlin’s hands travelled lower and wrapped themselves back around his cock Arthur propped himself up on his elbows. He wanted to be able to witness this. It was the hottest experience of his life and he wanted to sear the images into his brain.

Merlin was taking his time. He enjoyed the feel of Arthur’s skin under his hands and lips too much to rush through this. The sounds that Arthur was making just made the whole thing that much sweeter. After a few more moments of steadily applying more pressure with his mouth against Arthur’s hips Merlin nipped at the prince’s hip bone and then looked up at the man through his lashes.

Arthur had startled and snapped open his eyes when he felt Merlin’s teeth against his hip bone. It was about as far from unpleasant as it could get through. He may have been startled by the action, but that did nothing to take away from the heady groan that it tore out of his throat. Now, if Arthur had had any thoughts previously of looking away from Merlin they all burned to the ground at the look in Merlin’s eyes.

Seeing the startled look on Arthur’s face just made Merlin bolder. He let his eyes shine with the want and the need and the lust that had been building up between them for so long. He did manage to keep a hold on his magic, luckily enough, so his eyes didn’t flash gold at Arthur right before they got to the really good stuff.

Merlin let himself smirk up at Arthur just for a moment before he opened his lips and took Arthur’s cock in his mouth. It was something he hadn’t done in a long while, but it wasn’t exactly something he could forget how to do either. This was also something he had fantasized about doing to Arthur more than once. Finally it was all coming true and he was going to take every opportunity to make Arthur fall apart. This was a damn good place to start if the noises Arthur was making was any indication.

“Merlin!” Arthur breathed out harshly as soon as Merlin’s lips closed over him. It felt as though all of his breath had been instantly stolen from him. He couldn’t breathe as Merlin slowly bobbed his head over Arthur’s cock.

When Merlin hummed around him Arthur almost arched off the bed. He had thrown his head back more than once, squeezing his eyes shut. That never lasted long though. Arthur knew that Merlin was looking up at him through his lashes and Arthur couldn’t resist the sight of Merlin with his lips red and wet stretched wide over his dick. He could come from just the sight of it alone.

Merlin slowed his movements until just the head of Arthur’s cock was in his mouth. He sucked and licked at the slit making Arthur hitch in another shallow breath. The small groans and breathy gasps that the prince was making were going straight to Merlin’s dick. He never would have thought he could have gotten any harder, but those sounds made him harden further each time he heard one.

Arthur’s hands were clenched in the bed covers as he watched Merlin through barely open eyes. He desperately wanted to touch Merlin and grab onto his hair, anything, but he refused to give up his ability to watch the lithe man. Merlin was clearly watching him back, only moving the hand that was covering the very base of his dick, while he waited for Arthur’s attention. Once he was sure he had it Merlin took Arthur as deep as he could into his throat.

Arthur let out a half choked off sob of pleasure at the motion. Merlin chuckled around Arthur at the sound. It was incredible having Arthur fall apart beneath him. The prince’s entire body was shaking and the small sounds of pleasure were growing louder and more frequent. Without letting Arthur get used to the sensation of Merlin deep throating him, Merlin swallowed around Arthur’s cock.

“Mer- Ah!” Arthur was coming hard at that. He hadn’t even been able to get out all of Merlin’s name. The pleasure was instantaneous and wholly intense. It took over his entire body and he felt like he was floating on air for a few moments. In reality he had arched back into the bed and collapsed off of his elbows that had been propping him up. His eyes were tightly shut and rolled back into his head. It felt like it lasted an eternity.

Merlin stroked Arthur through his orgasm. He made sure to swallow everything that had shot straight down his throat. When Merlin finally pulled off it was to the sight of a completely boneless and blissed out Prince Arthur. Merlin reached down and tightly grabbed the base of his own cock. He didn’t want to come without even being touched, but he was right on the edge. Watching as Arthur fell apart because of him was absolutely the hottest thing that Merlin had ever witnessed or been a part of.

Suddenly Merlin felt himself being grabbed by the arm and hauled up on top of Arthur. The prince kissed Merlin hard showing absolutely everything to the lithe man. Arthur could taste himself in Merlin’s mouth, but that just seemed to make Arthur want this even more. Knowing that Merlin had just done that for him, was astounding and sexy and a whole bunch of other things.

Merlin lost himself in the kiss. His hands had flown to Arthur’s hair and they tangled there holding on for dear life. There wasn’t anything that could have stopped Merlin’s involuntary hip movements. It felt like forever before Arthur finally reached down and gave Merlin more friction.

Arthur’s hand wrapped around Merlin’s dick that was still rock hard. “What do you want, Merlin?” Arthur croaked the words out. It felt like his voice hadn’t been used in days or weeks. Arthur had said exactly those words so many times to his manservant, but this time the weight behind them was completely different. It wasn’t just a prince asking his servant something when the man was intruding. This was intimate and something private, solely for the two of them.

“Anything,” Merlin muttered out after a moment. He wasn’t exactly thinking clearly enough to be able to tell Arthur specifics. Arthur moved his hand in a tight grip up and down Merlin’s cock. It was slow and steady and the perfect amount of friction. When Arthur twisted his hand over the head on the upstroke immediately Merlin’s whole body arched. “Yes! Just like that. Just keep touching me. I’m close.”

Merlin let the words fall out of his mouth. Normally he would have turned bright red as soon as he thought something like that, let alone said it. This time though Merlin was too caught up in the sensations to care if he sounded needy and desperate for it. Arthur loved the scratchy rough sound of Merlin’s voice. It spurred him on to get Merlin off even more quickly and wring as many of those pleasured noises out of the man as he could along the way.

It only took another dozen strokes before Merlin’s magic snapped back inside of him and his body exploded in pleasure. Every muscle in Merlin’s body went taut as he came over Arthur’s hand and chest. Merlin had his eyes clenched shut since he was seriously worried about his control over his own magic at the moment and he really would rather not explain it all to Arthur in the middle of having sex with the man.

The both relaxed into the bed after Merlin had finally come down from his orgasm. Merlin’s eyes were still closed, but he could tell that Arthur was reaching down to the ground for something. When he pulled back onto the bed Merlin felt a quick swipe of fabric over himself and knew that Arthur repeated the same process on his own body. Then a thought occurred to Merlin, “was that my shirt?”

Arthur let the silence drag out as he looked down at the crumpled up fabric of Merlin’s shirt. “Uhm, no?” Arthur could barely keep a straight face or the amusement out of his voice. Without any doubt he knew that Merlin would notice.

“You’re lying aren’t you? I can tell,” Merlin still had his eyes closed, but the lie was easy to read.

“Shut up, Merlin. Just lay down with me.” Arthur flopped himself back down on the bed and drew Merlin back into him. He was comfortable like this. Arthur had never expected himself to be this comfortable with his arms wrapped around someone else. He had always thought there would be too many obligations and expectations hanging in the air for him to be content in this way. It was different with Merlin and that’s what made Arthur willing to risk it all for this feeling.

Merlin sighed into Arthur’s skin as he nuzzled his face into the prince’s neck. He was warm and content and relaxed, especially with his magic back in control. He never wanted to leave this bed. He was halfway to asleep wrapped in Arthur’s arms before he remembered the daily schedule. “Shouldn’t you be down at practice with the knights?”

“I’m exactly where I want to be Merlin. Leon will have guessed by now, I’m sure. He’ll run practice today.” Arthur practically whispered the words into Merlin’s skin. They were comfortably entwined and both of them would have hated to move.

“Hmmm. And you don’t mind that Leon and some of the other knights will know exactly why you aren’t down at practice?” Merlin couldn’t help the bit of doubt that crept into his voice. Even though he and Arthur had had that conversation about exactly this kind of thing it was hard to imagine someone like Arthur wanting people to know that he was with someone like Merlin.

“No. They already know as it stands. They would just have more facts to go on now. Not to mention apparently they are all under the impression that we’ve basically been together for a while.” Arthur spoke the words easily. He didn’t care that his men knew about this. He was happy and the ones who would know were all clearly fine with the idea. The others would be too intimidated by Arthur being the crown prince to actually say anything if they ever found out.

“Really?” Merlin asked, honestly curious.

“You can’t honestly say you haven’t noticed that they give us knowing looks all the time. Plus, you’re the only one who gets to talk to me like you do. And I get constant questions whenever I go anywhere without you.” Arthur’s words were slowing down right along with his thought processes. He could easily fall asleep right now.

Arthur was actually half asleep when he noticed Merlin twitching in his arms. It was going to easily keep him awake. Clearly Merlin was somehow still over thinking things, again. Merlin was warm and seemingly boneless resting against Arthur. Obviously Merlin wasn’t uncomfortable and just caught up in his own thoughts.

“Merlin?” Arthur finally slurred the word through his sleep hazed mind.

“Yeah?” Merlin asked back, his voice finally snapping back to the present.

“You think way too loud,” Arthur forced his voice to sound grumpy even though he could feel a smile creeping onto his face.

Merlin turned himself slightly in Arthur’s grip so that he could look up and the other man. He pressed himself in closer to where his lips were pressed against Arthur’s collarbone and his own answering smile was obvious. “I’m terribly sorry, sire. It’s horrible of me to disturb your rest like that.”

Arthur’s hand moved up and playfully tugged at the back of Merlin’s hair. “Smart ass. If you insist on keeping me awake, you may as well make yourself useful and grab us both supper from the kitchens.”

“Or you could grab us food. I’m sure you’d be able to locate the kitchens eventually.” Merlin offered instead of making this easy on Arthur.

“Right, because seeing me in the kitchens instead of at practice wouldn’t get back to my father in under an hour.” Arthur wrapped his arms even tighter around the lithe man that was warn in his arms. This felt a lot more comfortable than Arthur had ever expected.

“Fine. Maybe you have a point. This time anyway,” Merlin mumbled. After a long moment Merlin finally started to wiggle around on the bed in the process of getting up.

“Life would be easier for you Merlin if you just agreed that I’m always right.” Arthur let his arms fall away from Merlin to allow him space to free himself from the bed.

It look a moment for Merlin to fully untangle himself from Arthur’s arms and the blankets before he could stand freely. During the process Merlin couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped at Arthur’s comment. The prince was so far from always being right. Though if Merlin didn’t have intimate knowledge of all the times Arthur was wrong, the confidence Arthur gives off would be very misleading.

Once Merlin was finally standing in the middle of the room he realized that he was still completely naked and his gaze automatically swung to Arthur. The prince was staring at him, making Merlin flush from head to toe. Merlin fidgeted awkwardly in embarrassment. He shouldn’t be after what had all just happened, but he couldn’t help it. Arthur gave him a bright smile which calmed Merlin down, but only a tiny amount, just enough for him to track down his breeches and pull them on.

Merlin next started to reach for his shirt when he stopped and looked down at the now soiled piece of fabric. “Since you decided to use my shirt, I think now I’ll be stealing one of yours.”

Arthur just laid there on the bed looking skeptically over at Merlin, one eyebrow raised in a silent question. Merlin stared back for a moment and then just bent over and scooped up Arthur’s discarded shirt from earlier. Merlin tugged on the shirt that was clearly much too large for him in one smooth motion.

"That is unless you’d rather me wander out of your rooms, all through the castle, and into the kitchens without a shirt on.” Merlin wore a smirk on his face as he tugged on the shirt and watched Arthur’s expression.

Arthur laid there still stretched out over his blankets and studied Merlin for a moment in his own shirt. It wasn’t a hard decision at all and his mind was made up in only a second. “Wear the shirt. I’d prefer to be the only one to see you without it. Not to mention that I like seeing you in my clothes.”

Merlin felt his face flush instantly at Arthur’s words. He also knew that there was a smile on his face and even walking through the castle or doing chores wasn’t going to wipe it off of his face for a long while. “I think I’ll remember that one. I’ll be back soon with food for us, sire”

At Merlin’s cheeky addition of the honorific Arthur grabbed up the pillow from next to his head and lobbed it across the room at his manservant. Merlin easily side stepped it and left the room on a laugh. Arthur simply laid there and thought about how much his life had potentially changed in the short span of time. He had been through a lot of things that had shaped his life and the way he would one day rule, but this one was all his own decision. He smiled up at the ceiling knowing that Merlin was about as perfect for him as he could find. It was absolutely incredible that he hadn’t seen it earlier, of course it was Merlin.

Merlin made his way easily through the castle dodging around any of the other servants moving around doing their chores. He didn’t want to stop and get asked about his clearly too big clothes or the marks on his neck. If that did happen he would lie, but there was a large part of him that would just want to blurt out the truth.

The smile was stuck to his face. There was absolutely nothing in that moment that could make him stop smiling. Too much had happened that he had forced himself for years to not even imagine. Now it was happening and all real. Merlin had pinched himself multiple times over this, he was awake, and it wasn’t a dream.

Merlin made it to the kitchens in no time. He didn’t exactly want to spend any extra time away from Arthur right now. All of this was too new and much too exciting. Once in the kitchens he only had to say a few words and mention that the food was for Arthur before they were piling the dishes high.

He was in and out of the kitchens in record time which just widened his smile further. At this rate he wouldn’t be surprised to find himself starting to whistle while he walked back to Arthur’s chambers. It wasn’t long in his trek back through the castle before he heard someone calling out to him. Merlin turned around quickly to find a gorgeous woman standing there. She was all copper hair and green eyes wearing a lovely green dress.

“Hello, I’m so sorry to bother you, but I’m lost you see. I was wondering if you could give me directions?” The woman spoke lightly with an air of wealth and good lineage.

“Of course. It’s hard to navigate all of the different corridors until you’ve been here awhile. Where are you meant to be, my lady?” Merlin knew how to talk to women who looked like this. Exactly the way he had treated Morgana in the time before they became close friends.

“I’m Tara. I’ve become lost almost every day since I got here. I’ve only been here three weeks. I’m here to visit and make inroads. Specifically with the Lady Morgana and anyone she deems to be worthy. I’m supposed to be meeting her in her chambers about now.” Tara glanced around as she was clearly looking for some kind of landmark in the castle to tell her where she was at.

“It’s increasingly difficult to find your way unless you start from a place you know, my lady. Just a bit father down this hall is the staircase and down that would be the kitchens. The lady Morgana’s chambers are on this floor as are quite a few others. You should find her rooms if you go all the way down this corridor and take a left. Then her door will be the last one of the right,” Merlin carefully detailed the directions as he saw it in his head. He didn’t want to accidentally lead the woman in the wrong direction.

“Thank you so much. Once again, I’m so sorry to have interrupted you. Clearly I bothered you from your work. And I don’t even know your name” Tara sounded increasingly distressed and so Merlin rushed to reassure her.

“No, it’s no bother at all, my lady. When I first came here I had to learn rather quickly. I’m Merlin and if you ever need any other directions I’m always around somewhere.” Merlin gave the woman an easy smile that he coped conveyed the fact that he really didn’t mind giving her directions.

“Oh, of course. You’re Prince Arthur’s manservant, aren’t you? I’ve heard your name mentioned a few times.” Tara’s eye widened a bit and Merlin couldn’t help the chuckle that wanted to escape his mouth. Even the ladies who had never met Arthur were enamored with him.

“Yes, my lady, I am,” Merlin replied.

“Well, I bet that Prince Arthur appreciates having such a nice and charming manservant. I’m kind of jealous. He must greatly enjoy having you around, I’m certain that I would.” Tara bit her lip and smiled at Merlin in a way that he was sure he never expected to see on a noble woman’s face. Not directed at him in any case.

Merlin stood there stumped for a long moment. He was sure that his mouth was gaping like a fish and it was entirely embarrassing, but he couldn’t help it. Then it snapped. She probably was flirting as a means to get anywhere near Arthur. If she has been here three weeks and hadn’t been able to run into him otherwise, this was her next grand idea. That at least made some sense to him.

Before Merlin could open his mouth again and give her a response Morgana swept around the corner like an avenging angel. “Ah! Lady Tara! I had worried that you had become lost on your way to our afternoon tea. I hope the castle hasn’t been giving you too many problems.”

Morgana swept into their small circle of conversation and took up an enormous presence as her gaze looked Merlin over. She elegantly lifted a single eyebrow upon noticing that the shirt he was currently wearing was not his own, but she quickly returned her eyes to Lady Tara.

“And I see you’ve met Merlin. He’s incredibly helpful so if you ever find yourself lost again I’m sure he can point you in the correct direction.” Morgana was a master at this, ingratiating herself and others into the minds of their guests.

“Yes, I have come to realize that as well. I’m so sorry to keep you waiting my lady. I simply got distracted talking to Merlin here. He’s quite charming and helpful. He was directing me to your chambers just now.” Tara was once again smiling at Merlin in that strange way that he could barely identify.

“You go on ahead then. I will join you in just a moment, Lady Tara. I need to ask Merlin a question for Gaius, the court physician.” Morgana dismissed the other woman without actually sounding like she was dismissing her.

Once Tara had finally turned the corner and was gone from their sight Merlin looked up into the very smug smile on Morgana’s face. “So I take it everything is going well then.”

“That wasn’t even a question. And clearly you already know exactly how things went.” Merlin spoke each word like he was waiting for Morgana to drop the bomb she clearly wanted to.

“Well I don’t know exactly, but I can take a wild guess. Oh, is that Arthur’s shirt?” Morgana’s smile turned even more wicked and smug if that was physically possible for a facial expression.

Merlin refused to back down from this. He didn’t want to blush and run away every time someone brought it up, especially one of the few people who could know about it all. “Yes, it is actually. Mine got a bit dirty, I’m sure you can guess how.”

Morgana’s face crumpled into disgust which Merlin couldn’t help but to smirk at. “Ew. Merlin, I’m more than happy for the both of you, but I really don’t need any details. This is my brother after all.”

Merlin gives a huge laugh at that. It was the desired reaction he had hoped for. “You’d better go have your afternoon tea. And I’d better get back to Arthur.”

Morgana once again smiled at the man. She was smug and she had every right to be. The two of them would have both been content to have their heads buried in the sand if it wasn’t for her yanking them both out of it all and into reality. “You know she was flirting with you, right?”

“You’re insane,” Merlin spoke with conviction. “She wants Arthur. Her interest in me is only to get in speaking range of him.”

“Whatever you say, Merlin. I’ll see you later, we still have a lot of work to do after all.” Morgan turned and gracefully moved back down the hall a laugh trailing after her.

Merlin rolled his eyes at her dramatics before finally turning back around and continuing towards Arthur’s chambers. It was only a few moments before he was pushing open the door to Arthur sitting at the table instead of lying in bed where Merlin had left him. He was also redressed in his breeches even if that was all he had on.

“What took you so long? I’m bloody starving by now.” Arthur demanded almost as soon as the door shut behind him. There was no real heat in Arthur’s voice, but there was heat in the way that his eyes raked over Merlin’s body lingering on the mark on his neck and the way the shirt fell on his frame.

Merlin’s lips once again formed that smile that he was becoming more and more sure was always going to be connected to Arthur. “Sorry. I got stopped by one of the new ladies here. She was lost and asked for directions. She kept talking for a bit before Morgana came to shuffle her off for tea.”

“Ah, yes. Visiting ladies come from all over to stay in Camelot. I don’t see the point really. Only a rare woman ends up marrying one of the knights or staying here with Morgana’s blessing. I used to learn all their names because it was polite, but I long ago gave up the habit. It took too long and there were too many names.” Arthur chuckled at his childhood memory of confusing the women’s names so many times it actually caused his father to huff in annoyance during a formal dinner.

“By the way, Morgana knew this was your shirt. She definitely knows everything. Also she said that Lady Tara was flirting with me.” Merlin set the tray down in between the two chairs. Merlin settled himself in the empty one and reached forward to snag a piece of meat off of the plates.

“What?” Arthur exclaimed in surprise. “She was flirting with you?”

“And you’re jealous again.” Merlin bit his lip after the words left his mouth and looked up at Arthur through his lashes.

“You already know that I don’t like other people going after what’s mine.” Arthur replied after a long moment trying to keep from sounding sulky.

“And I’m yours then?” Merlin’s breathing was speeding up at just the thought.

“I certainly hope so,” Arthur replied easily. He shrugged off the words as though he didn’t really care, but his voice clearly told a different story.

Merlin leaned forward and connected their lips in a sweet and intimate kiss. It said everything, but Merlin still spoke when the kiss finally ended. “You have nothing to worry about Arthur. I’m guessing that she was only trying to get close to me so she could meet you. She showed quite an interest in the fact that I’m your manservant specifically. And after all, who is a servant to a court lady?”

“Well if that’s what she thinks, then she’s missing out. Not that I’m going to complain. I quite enjoy having you all to myself.” This time Arthur initiated the kiss and it was a good long while before either of them thought of eating the food again that evening.


End file.
